


Hands to Hold, Hell to Pay

by totalnovaktrash



Series: A Different Story [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Rewrite, Series 3, Tenth Doctor Era, mentions of Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-17 07:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5860171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totalnovaktrash/pseuds/totalnovaktrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After ten years of defending Earth with Torchwood Three, Lilithanadir is going home. But is she ready to face another person from her past? Or worse, someone from her father's?</p><p>REVAMPED AS OF 9/9 TO FIX CONTINUITY WITH LATER STORIES</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return to the TARDIS

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I lied. This one ended up being longer than I thought it would be, so I'm going to just try to post a chapter a day. Also on ff.net

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Librarian Adelyn Green and maid Martha Jones struggle to convince the bookish school teacher John Smith that he's really a Time Lord.

Adelyn Green, the librarian at Farringham School for Boys, had agreed to go to the dance with John Smith as friends. She wore a dark brown sweater and a lighter brown skirt that reached her ankles. She was playing with her waist length ginger hair while her turquoise eyes wandered around the room.

John was getting drinks when Martha sat down at the table with Adelyn. “Martha, please, not again.”

“He's different from any other man you've ever met, right?”

“In more ways than one,” Adelyn agreed.

“And sometimes he says these strange things, like people and places you've never heard of, yeah?” Martha continued. “But it's deeper than that. Sometimes when you look in his eyes you know, you just know that there's something else in there. Something hidden. Right behind the eyes, something hidden away in the dark.”

The librarian shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t fancy John, Martha. Besides, I don't know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do. I don't mean to be rude, but the awful thing is it doesn't even matter what you think. But you're nice. And I just wanted to say sorry for what I'm about to do.”

John returned to the table. “Oh, now really, Martha. This is getting out of hand. I must insist that you leave.”

Martha held up the sonic screwdriver. “Do you know what this is? Name it. Go on, name it.”

Adelyn’s eyes widened. “Where… where did you get that?” she demanded.

Martha looked at her, confused. “You recognize it?” John hesitantly took the screwdriver. She turned her attention back to him. “You're not John Smith. You're called the Doctor. The man in your journal, he's real. He's you.”

At that moment, three people came marching in. The man in the lead, Mr. Clark, knocked over. “There. Will. Be. Silence! All of you!” he bellowed. Scarecrow creatures lumbered through the doors. Everyone backed away in fear. “I said, silence!”

No one noticed Adelyn’s hand drift toward her bag.

“Mister Clarke, what's going on?” a man demanded.

Mr. Clarke aimed a ray gun at the man and shot. He got vaporized.

“Mister Smith? Everything I told you, just forget it!” Martha told the teacher. “Don't say anything.”

“We asked for silence!” a boy announced loudly. Baines. “Now then, we have a few questions for Mister Smith.”

“No, better than that,” a little girl, Lucy, said. “The teacher. He's the Doctor. I heard them talking.”

Baines studied John. “You took human form.”

“Of course I'm human. I was born human, as were you, Baines. And Jenny, and you, Mister Clarke. What is going on? This is madness.” John cried. Martha shot Adelyn another look when she winced at John’s words.

“Ooh, and a human brain, too. Simple, thick and dull,” Baines taunted.

“But he's no good like this,” Jenny said.

“We need a Time Lord.”

“Easily done.” Baines stepped forward and raised his ray gun. “Change back.”

“I don't know what you're talking about!” John insisted.

“Change back!”

“I literally do not know!”

Jenny grabbed Martha, and put a gun to her head. Martha screeched, “Get off me!”

“She's your friend, isn't she?” Jenny sneered. “Doesn't this scare you enough to change back?”

“I don't know what you mean!” John shouted.

“Let go of the maid.”

All of the possessed humans and John turned to look at Adelyn, who stood straight, unbelievably calm.

“Or what?” Baines spat.

In a flash, Adelyn whipped something out of her bag and aimed it at Jenny. There was a burst of blue light and the former maid collapsed to the floor.

“What was that?” Martha panted.

“Sonic blaster,” Adelyn said with a newly American accent. “Alright. Who’s next, _amigos_?” The Family lowered their guns. “John, get everyone out. There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on. Do it, Mister Smith. Now.”

John snapped into motion. “Do what she said. Everybody out, now. Don't argue, Mister Jackson. They're mad. That's all we need to know. Susan, Miss Cooper, outside, all of you.”

“And you, too, Smith. Get out of here.”

“What about you?” he protested.

“Mister Smith, I think you should escort your friend to safety, don't you?” Adelyn cocked her head towards Martha.

Martha sniffed. “I can take care of myself.”

“I’m know. But Rassilon knows he barely can.”

Reluctantly, the Doctor’s companion took John Smith by the arm and led him out of the hall. Adelyn turned to face the Family again. “Now, where were we?”

* * *

When Adelyn made it out of the hall, Martha and John were standing outside. The young lady rolled her eyes. “Don't just stand there, move! I always knew you'd be useless as a human. Come on!” She grabbed John and Martha’s hands and ran.

“Adelyn, what on Earth is going on?” John asked as they ran.

“You’re smack dab in the middle of an alien invasion, Johnny,” Adelyn quipped.

“And what was that thing you used to shoot Jenny?”

She smiled fondly. “51st century sonic blaster. It was a gift.”

“But it’s 1913,” Martha said.

“I thought you were the Doctor’s companion. I stood up to those bastards, randomly changed accents, and then shot one of the aliens with a freaking blaster and you _still_ think I’m from this time period?” Adelyn shot John a ‘can you believe it?’ look, but he just stared back at her incomprehensibly. She rolled her eyes. “Utterly useless,” she said again.

“You killed Jenny,” Martha said, as if it just hit her.

“I’ve dealt with something like the family before. Jenny was already dead. She was the minute she was possessed by the Mother. We need to hurry up; we’re almost back at the school.

Once there, Martha started to get in an argument with John about making the boys fight, but Adelyn dragged her away. “We need to find that watch.” Martha huffed and stormed towards John’s rooms.

To Adelyn’s dismay, the Matron, who had developed a crush on John, tagged along. Martha and Adelyn tore apart the room while Joan just watched.

“I know it sounds mad, but when the Doctor became human, he took the alien part of himself and he stored it inside the watch,” Martha explained to the unmoving woman. “It's not really a watch; it just looks like a watch.”

“And alien means not from abroad, I take it,” Joan said.

“John Smith, or at least the man we call John, was actually born on another planet,” Adelyn told her.

“A different species.”

“Yeah.” Adelyn’s voice dripped with impatience.

“Then tell me. In this fairy tale, who are you two?”

“I’m just a friend,” Martha said. “I'm not… I mean, you haven't got a rival—”

Adelyn snorted. “As far as you know.”

“And human, I take it?” Joan questioned.

“Human. Don't worry,” Martha confirmed. “And more than that, I just don't follow him around. I'm training to be a doctor. Not an alien doctor, a proper doctor. A doctor of medicine.”

“Well that certainly is nonsense. Women might train to be doctors, but hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your color,” Joan sniffed.

“Watch the racism or I’ll blow your head off,” Adelyn warned the elder woman.

Martha raised an eyebrow. “Oh, do you think? Bones of the hand: carpal bones, proximal row. Scaphoid, lunate, triquetal, pisiform. Distal row: trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Then the metacarpal bones extending in three distinct phalanges: proximal, middle, distal.”

“You read that in a book.”

“Yes, to pass my exams. Can't you see this is true?”

Joan shifted uncomfortably. “I must go.”

“If we find that watch, then we can stop them,” Martha insisted.

“Those boys are going to fight,” Joan said. “ I might not be a doctor, but I'm still their nurse. They need me.”

* * *

Mr. Clarke was standing outside the TARDIS, shouting, as John, Adelyn, Martha, and— despite Adelyn’s protests— Joan hid in the bushes. “Doctor! Doctor!” Mr. Clarke yelled. “Come back, Doctor! Come home! Come and claim your prize!”

“Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy! Come to the Family!” Baines shouted. “Time to end it now!”

“You recognize it, don't you?” Martha asked quietly.

“Come out, Doctor! Come to us!”

John shook his head, but didn’t take his eyes off the TARDIS. “I've never seen it in my life.”

“Do you remember its name?” Adelyn whispered.

“I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it,” Joan said. “The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box.”

“I'm not… I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be,” John whimpered. “John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love." (Everyone ignored the choking sound Adelyn made.) “Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?”

“Yes. Yes, he is.”

“Why can't I stay?”

Martha put her hand on John’s shoulder. “But we need the Doctor.”

“What am I, then? Nothing. I'm just a story.” John sprinted away. Martha and Joan followed. Adelyn shot a wistful look at the TARDIS and raced after the two.

“This way,” Joan said when they caught up with John. “I think I know somewhere we can hide.”

“We've got to keep going,” John said darkly.

Adelyn rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up and listen to someone else for once.”

Joan led them to an apparently abandoned cottage. “Oh, here we are. It should be empty. Oh, it's a long time since I've run that far.”

“Who lives here?” Martha asked.

“If I'm right, no one.” They all went inside. It was dark, and the table was set for tea. “Hello? No one home. We should be safe here.”

“Whose house is it, though?” Martha repeated.

“Er, the Cartwrights,” Joan replied. “That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished. How easily I accept these ideas.”

“I must go to them, before anyone else dies,” John decided.

“Perfectly typical.” Adelyn snorted.

“You can't.” Joan turned to Martha. “Martha, there must be something we can do.”

Martha shook her head. “Not without the watch.”

“You're this Doctor's companion. Can't you help?” John spat. “What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?”

“Watch it, dipwad!” Adelyn snapped.

“Because he's lonely,” Martha said.

“And that's what you want me to become?” John’s voice was shaky.

“No,” Adelyn hissed. “He’s never alone. Not while I have a say in things.”

John turned to face her. “And who exactly are you, Adelyn Green? I’ve never seen you in any of my dreams.”

“ _Technically_ you have. You just don’t realize it yet.”

“But who are you?” he demanded.

“Why does it matter to you?” Adelyn demanded, suddenly hostile. “You may really be the Doctor, but right now, you’re John Smith. Not the man I’d trust my life with. You know why? Because you’re _human_. I mean, look at you! Pathetic, sniveling, weak, useless. Where’s the Oncoming Strom, huh? Nowhere to be found! Because you’re just a worthless human! You’re nothing but a stupid ape!”

“I am the Doctor!” John roared. Then he blinked. “What…?”

There was a knock at the door. “What if it's them?” Joan worried.

“I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock.” Martha opened the door.

On the other side was Timothy Latimer. “I brought you this.” He held out the watch.

Martha took the fob watch and offered it to John. “Hold it.”

He shook his head. “I won't.”

“Please, just hold it.”

“He’s not going to listen, Martha,” Adelyn said with her arms crossed.

“It told me to find you,” Timothy said. “It wants to be held.”

“You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it?” Joan asked.

“Because it was waiting.”

Adelyn huffed. “He’s not going to even touch the damn watch. He’s too scared.”

Suddenly, there was a big bang. The cottage shook. “What the hell?” Martha gasped. Out the window, they could see fireballs are falling to earth a little ways away.

“They're destroying the village!” Joan realized.

John was staring at the watch. He grabbed it and held it in his cupped hands. Timothy noticed. “Can you hear it?”

“I think he's asleep,” John said. “Waiting to awaken.”

“Why did he speak to me?” Timothy wondered.

John didn’t look up. “Oh, low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing—” He inhaled sharply. “Is that how he talks?”

“Typical,” Adelyn snorted.

“That's him.” Martha nodded vigorously. “All you have to do is open it and he's back.”

John looked at her darkly. “You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I—”

“Please stay away from that topic. Sickening,” Adelyn grumbled.

“I didn't know how to stop you. He gave me a list of things to watch out, for but that wasn't included.”

“Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?”

“No.”

“Then what sort of man is that?” John’s eyes were watering.

“The kind of man who was already in love with someone else,” Adelyn said quietly.

John looked at her strangely. “And now you expect me to die?”

“It was always going to end, though!” Martha protested. “The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said.”

“So, your job was to execute me,” he said flatly.

“People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago. But he is everything. He's just everything to me and he doesn't even look at me, but I don't care, because I love him to bits. And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this.”

Another explosion shook the cottage. “This is pointless!” Adelyn fumed.

“Adelyn—”

“He’s too stubborn, Martha! You know it and I know it. It’s time I take matters into my own hands.” She rolled up the sleeve of her sweater to reveal a techy looking watch.

“What do you mean?” Joan asked.

Adelyn gripped her blaster. “Those bastards want a Time Lord? They’ll get one.” She pressed a button on her watch and disappeared in a flash.

* * *

Adelyn stood in the Family’s ship, blaster pointed at Baines.

“We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the dust into glass, then shatter them all over again.” The Brother hissed. The spaceship door opened and John Smith stumbled in.

“John!” Adelyn growled.

“Just—” A boom rocked the ship, and he lurched against a column of switches. “Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just, just stop.”

Adelyn whipped her head around to glare at him. “Get out of here, John Smith.”

“Wait a minute,” Mr. Clarke said and sniffed. “Still human.”

“Now I can't, I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know I'm innocent in all this. He made me John Smith. It's not like I had any control over it.” He backed away, accidentally running his hands over more switches.

Adelyn stared at him. What the hell was he doing?

“He didn't just make himself human. He made himself an idiot.” Lucy laughed.

“Same thing, isn't it?” Baines said.

“I don't care about this Doctor and your family. I just want you to go. So I've made my choice. You can have him. Just take it, please! Take him away.” John held out the watch.

“No!” Adelyn cried. She almost swung the blaster to point at John, but a tickle in the back of her mind made her hesitate. Something was off.

“At last.” Baines took the watch with one hand, and the John’s lapels with the other. “Don't think that saved your life.” He pushed John away. More switches got activated as he fell against the wall. “Family of mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord."

Baines opened the watch and the Family all sniffed deeply. “It's empty!”

Adelyn whipped her head around to look at John. Baines threw the watch to him, and he caught it without looking and stood up. A smile started to spread across her face.

“Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection. Little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it has got to be said,” he pulled out a pair of specs and put them on, “I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer. It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters. Oh. Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons. But, in fairness, I will give you one word of advice.” The Doctor grinned. “Run.”

The Doctor grabbed Adelyn’s hand and they ran out of the ship as alarms started to sound.

* * *

When all was said and done, the Doctor, Martha, and Adelyn all went back to the TARDIS and the Doctor sent them into the vortex. “All that has been taken care of and there’s only one thing left.” He turned to Adelyn who was lounging on the jump seat. “Who are you?”

“Now, that’s the real question, isn’t it? Who is this stranger with the brilliant ginger hair, that you are thoroughly jealous of, that knows so much about you?” Adelyn said jovially. “I could be anyone. An old companion that you’ve forgotten about, someone you had to wipe from your memory, a child of an old companion,” she listed, and then paused.

“Or maybe,” she continued slowly, “maybe I’m a companion you _do_ remember. One who left you with a promise.” She approached the Doctor. “I told you it wasn’t the end and I keep my promises.”

The Doctor stared at her. “You said you were a Time Lord. Lilith?” he asked hoarsely.

The ginger’s face lit up. “Hey,” she said and threw herself into the Doctor’s open arms.

Martha cleared her throat. “Um, Doctor? Who is she?”

“Ah, right. Martha, may I introduce you to Lilithanadir Lungbarrow.” The Doctor beamed. “My daughter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One chapter per day. Let's do this.


	2. A Talk in the Library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor confronts Lilith about her leaving before the Battle of Canary Wharf.

To be honest, it surprised Lilith that her father took a few days before confronting her in the library.

“Did you know?” he asked from the doorway. Lilith was inexplicably hit with the memory of when it was _she_ in that doorway and _Rose_ on the couch reading.

“I knew a lot of things,” she said.

“Did you know I was going to lose her?” The Doctor’s voice was sharp.

Lilith sighed and put down her copy of _The Deathly Hallows_. “Yes.”

“You knew I was going to be alone and you left anyway.” He stared at her, eyes harsh. “I seem to recall you saying something along the lines of ‘He’s never alone. Not while I have a say in things’.”

“You think I had a say?” Lilith laughed mirthlessly. “You think I had a choice?”

“You could’ve warned us, prevented it,” he growled.

“And caused a paradox? I get that this is hard on you, Dad, but it’s just as hard on me!” she snapped. “Because I _know_ what she’s going through in that universe. You've convinced yourself that she's living a life she deserves but I _know_ that she’s stuck there and utterly miserable. She's my—” Lilith seemed to choke on her words. “She’s my best friend and there’s nothing I can do to help her.”

The Doctor didn’t notice her mess up. “You pushed us together knowing that she couldn’t stay forever. You knew that she was going to be taken from me and you encouraged me to start a relationship with her!”

“'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” Lilith quoted quietly. They were both silent for a minute or two. “Sometimes I really hate you.”

The Doctor frowned. “Why?”

“You’re the one who locked away all the adventures, all the stories, so that I couldn’t change the past. So many people died that I could’ve saved if you’d just let me remember.

“But on top of that, you didn’t take away my memories of the people I know. I had to be friends with Uncle Micks without letting slip who he was. I had to travel with Uncle Jack without him knowing he was my godfather. I had to go on an adventure with Aunt Sarah Jane without telling her that her son is one of my closest friends.

“Now I’m living on the TARDIS with Aunt Martha during the time she was crushing on you. Do you know how much it hurts to see someone you love look at you like you’re a stranger?” Lilith demanded with tears in her eyes.

The Doctor sighed and sat next to Lilith putting his arm around her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“I’ve been expecting you to. I blame myself,” she admitted. “There are so many things I could’ve done to save you from all this pain.”

“And caused a paradox?” He echoed her earlier words and shook his head. “You’re always trying to protect me. I’m not made of glass, you know.”

“Thank Rassilon.” Lilith chuckled. “Who knows what trouble you’ve gotten in while I was gone.”

“Well, I almost drowned fighting the Empress of the Racnoss, was nearly killed by a plasmavore, had one of my hearts stopped when I met Shakespeare, got my companion kidnapped, a Dalek saved my life, was pretty close to being mutated, and I got possessed by a murderous and sentient sun.” He ticked the adventures off on his fingers.

“A murderous, sentient sun,” Lilith repeated. “Hold on, did you say Shakespeare? You met Shakespeare without me?”

“Er, maybe?”

“Dad!”

Martha poked her head in. “Doctor? There’s an alarm going off in the console room.”

The Doctor jumped up. “Sounds like an adventure!” He offered his hand to Lilith. “Allons-y?”

Lilith beamed and accepted his hand. “ _Vamanos, Padre._ ”


	3. Prelude to the Dullest Few Months

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck in 1969, Martha and Lilith have a little chat.

Lilith banged her head against the table. She grumbled angrily about ‘stupid angels’, ‘primitive human technology’, and ‘the nineteen freaking sixties’, punctuating the complaints with her typical Gallifreyan swear words.

She had taken apart her vortex manipulator and the pieces of her iPod were scattered around the tabletop. “Damn angels with their stupid ability to send people back in time and _break their stuff!_ ” she hissed, mostly to herself.

The vortex manipulator had gotten messed up because of the impromptu time travel and Lilith was forced to fix it _by hand_ with pieces of her _iPod_ , the blue one that her Uncle Jack had gotten her as a birthday present.

“So,” Martha said, sitting down on the other side of the table, “what’s it like?”

Three months had passed since Lilith showed up in 1913 to find her father hiding in a boy’s prep school as a human teacher. Since then, the Doctor seemed to have gotten used to Lilith’s new face and Martha seemed to have gotten used to the fact that Lilith was his daughter.

“What’s what like?” Lilith asked, distractedly.

“The future,” Martha clarified. “You’re from the Doctor’s future, right?”

Lilith sighed and put down the pieces she was working with. She looked around to make sure that the Doctor was still out getting food (“Chips! That’s what we need. Proper chips!” he had cried) before answering, “It’s not all that different from the present.”

“Well, there’s got to be some differences,” Martha reasoned.

Lilith shrugged. “Sure. He’s got a different face, don’t ask, and Mom, Jen, Kel, and the twins are there too.”

“You have siblings?”

“Jen, Kelly, Nyx, and Jamie. The twins are only a year old so we have to cut down on the dangerous adventures. But sometimes, when Dad gets stir crazy, we drop them off with you and Uncle—” Lilith coughed. “Ah, you and your husband, and go to less kid-friendly planets. Plenty of running to do there.”

Martha frowned. “I’m not traveling with you anymore?”

“Everyone leaves us in the end, no one can stay forever. We can only hope they stay for a while. Besides, in my time, it’s been over a century and a half since you traveled with Dad.”

“But you just said that you drop your siblings off with me. I’m not going to live that long!”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “ _Time machine_ , Martha.”

Just then, the Doctor burst into the apartment. “I got the chips!” he announced.

“And I,” Lilith said, screwing the last bit of her vortex manipulator in, “have a working vortex manipulator.”

“Brilliant!” Martha said, taking a bag of fries from the Doctor. “Now you can go back to 2007 and get the TARDIS to pick us up.”

The Doctor put the rest of the fries down on the counter. “Except, that’s not what we’re doing.”

Lilith frowned. “Then what are we doing? Waiting forty years?”

"Thirty eight." He pulled a folder out of his jacket. “We’re going to follow the script.”

“Isn’t that the folder that the girl gave to you when we were hunting those Transdonite-lizard-thing?” Martha asked.

“Sally Sparrow,” the Doctor confirmed.

Lilith popped a fry in her mouth. “Who the hell is Sally Sparrow?”

“The girl you’re going to be stalking.”

The young Time Lady wrinkled her nose. “Oh, _fantastic_.”


	4. Of Angels and Sparrows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Doctor and Martha stuck in 1969, the only person who can help them is Sally Sparrow and her strange ginger stalker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one chapter for this episode, since it's just bits and pieces. Watched it before I went to bed. Nightmares galore.

Sally Sparrow loved old things, and Wester Drumlins definitely counted as old.

Camera in hand, she climbed the fence and broke through a boarded up window. She took pictures of everything she could; the furniture, the walls, even the plastic covered chandelier on the floor.

That’s when she noticed it on the wall, under the peeling wallpaper. The letter B. She pulled back the wallpaper to reveal the word ‘beware’. Below it was the phrase ‘the Weeping Angel’.

Beware the Weeping Angel. Not ominous at all.

Pulling away more of the wallpaper, she read, ‘Oh, and duck! Really, duck! Sally Sparrow duck, now!’

So Sally ducked just before a thrown pot, which broke the window behind her, shattered against the wall.

She shined her flashlight out the window to see a statue of a winged angel with its hands covering its face. She turned back to the wall and pulled away one more bit of wallpaper.

Love from the Doctor (1969)

“Eerie, isn’t it?”

Sally jumped and spun around. In the corner of a room stood a girl about her age with long, ginger hair and bright turquoise eyes.

“The Doctor told you to duck and you listened. Now listen to me, Sally Sparrow. Run.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Sally Sparrow and Kathy Nightingale climbed the gates together.

“Okay, let's investigate! You and me, girl investigators. Love it. Hey! Sparrow and Nightingale. That so works,” Kathy babbled, happily.

“Bit ITV,” Sally said.

“I know!” They made it to the entrance hall. “What did you come here for anyway?”

Sally shrugged. “I love old things. They make me feel sad.”

“What's good about sad?” Kathy asked.

“It's happy for deep people.” She looked at the writing on the wall, and then walked out into the conservatory to look at the garden. “The Weeping Angel.”

Kathy considered the statue. “Not that in my garden.”

Sally frowned. “It's moved.”

“It's what?”

“Since yesterday,” Sally clarified. “I'm sure of it. It's closer. It looks like it got closer to the house.”

“That’s because it has.” The ginger girl from the night before appeared next to the two girls. “It’s definitely gotten closer.”

“Where’d you come from?” Kathy demanded at the same time Sally said, “You were here last night.”

The girl nodded. “I was.” She wandered back inside. Sally studied the girl, who was looking at the words with a hint of sadness.

She turned her attention to the wall. “How can my name be written here? How is that possible?”

The doorbell rang.

“Who'd come here?” Kathy wondered. Sally headed toward the door. “What are you doing? It could be a burglar!” she hissed.

Sally looked at her. “A burglar who rings the doorbell?”

“Okay. I'll stay here in case of…” Kathy trailed off.

“In case of?” Sally prompted.

“Incidents?”

The ginger girl rolled her eyes. Sally headed down the stairs and opened the door. There was a man on the other side. “I'm looking for Sally Sparrow,” he said.

“How did you know I'd be here?” she demanded.

He pulled a letter out of his jacket. “I was told to bring this letter on this date at this exact time to Sally Sparrow.”

“Looks old,” the girl, who had silently joined them, noted.

“It is old. I'm sorry, do you have anything with a photograph on it, like a driving license?” the man asked Sally.

She reached into her pocket for her license. “How did you know I was coming here? I didn't tell anyone. How could anyone have known?”

“Kathy knows,” the girl pointed out.

“Kathy’s upstairs,” Sally said. “She didn’t have time to tell anyone.”

The man shrugged. “It's all a bit complicated. I'm not sure I understand it myself.” Sally handed him her license. “I'm sorry, I feel really stupid, but I was told to make absolutely sure. It's so hard to tell with these little photographs, isn't it?”

“Apparently.”

“This is a tad bit pathetic, really,” the girl said.

Sally turned to her. “Who did you say you were?”

The girl shrugged. “No one of any real significance."

“Well, here goes, I suppose.” The man handed Sally the letter. “Funny feeling, after all these years.”

“Who's it from?” Sally asked.

“Well, that's a long story, actually.”

“Give me a name,” she insisted.

“Katherine Wainwright,” the man said. “But she specified I should tell you that prior to marriage she was called Kathy Nightingale.”

There was a bang as a door slammed closed. The ginger girl shivered and muttered something under her breath.

“Kathy?” Sally called out.

The man nodded, looking confused. “Kathy, yes. Katherine Costello Nightingale.”

“Is this a joke?”

“A joke?”

“No joke,” the girl said quietly.

“Kathy, is this you? Very funny!” Sally shouted and went into the drawing room. It was empty. The Weeping Angel statue sat in the same place out in the garden. She went back into the entrance hall to find the man looking a bit agitated.

The girl was nowhere to be seen.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally Sparrow laid flowers on Katherine Wainwright’s grave. “1902? You told him you were eighteen?” She chuckled. “You lying cow.”

“I’m sorry about your friend.”

Sally jerked upright and looked around. The girl from before, Ginger, as Sally had decided to call her, was leaning against a tree. “Yeah?”

“I lost a friend to the Angels too,” Ginger said. “Two of them, actually. There are too many paradoxes to visit them normally. Even my manipulator gets messed up trying to land in the 30’s.”

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” Sally asked for the second time that day.

“I told you, I’m no one. I never tell you my name. At least not that you wrote.”

Sally shook her head. “I have to go. I need to tell Larry… God, what am I going to tell him?”

“Try ‘your sister was sent back in time by malevolent statues’,” suggested Ginger.

“You sound ridiculous,” Sally said.

“He’ll figure out the truth eventually. Just wait.”

Sally started walking away. “Right.”

“Sally, don’t let that key out of your sight!” Ginger called after her. “Whatever you do, don’t lose the key!”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally Sparrow hesitated, unsure of what to say to Larry Nightingale.

“What's the message?” he prompted.

“She's had to go away for a bit,” Sally said, finally.

“Where?”

“Just a work thing. Nothing to worry about.”

“A work thing?” Ginger appeared in the doorway. “That’s what you decided to go with?”

Sally frowned. “Are you stalking me?”

Ginger actually thought about it for a second. “I think so. That’s what he said, anyway.” She jabbed her thumb at the TV screen showing a man.

Larry looked at Ginger, wide-eyed. “You know him?”

“’Course I know him,” Ginger snorted.

“ _Yeah. Yeah, people don't understand time. It's not what you think it is,_ ” said the man on the screen.

Larry paused the video.

“Who is this guy?” Sally asked. “Last night at Kathy's, you had him on all those screens. That same guy. Talking about, I don't know, blinking or something.”

“Yeah, the bit about the blinking's great.” Larry grinned. “I was just checking to see if they were all the same.”

“What were the same? What is this? Who is he?”

“An Easter egg,” Larry said at the same time Ginger answered, “The Doctor.”

“Excuse me?”

Larry looked at Ginger, who waved her hand, signaling for him to go first. “Like a DVD extra, yeah?” he said. “You know how on DVDs they put extras on, documentaries and stuff? Well, sometimes they put on hidden ones, and they call them Easter eggs. You have to go looking for them. Follow a bunch of clues on the menu screen.”

The video unpaused. “ _Complicated._ ”

Ginger snickered.

“Sorry.” Larry paused the video again. “It's interesting, actually. He is on seventeen different DVDs. There are seventeen totally unrelated DVDs, all with him on. Always hidden away, always a secret. Not even the publishers know how he got there. I've talked to the manufacturers, right? They don't even know. He's like he's a ghost DVD extra. Just shows up where he's not supposed to be.”

“That pretty much sums him up,” Ginger muttered.

Sally cocked her head to the side. “Well, what does he do?”

Larry shrugged. “Just sits there, making random remarks. It's like we're hearing half a conversation. Me and the guys are always trying to work out the other half.”

Sally raised her eyebrows. “When you say you and the guys, you mean the Internet, don't you?”

“How'd you know?” Larry frowned.

“Spooky, isn't it?”

“ _Very complicated._ ”

“Laurence?” the man in the front of the shop called. “Need you.”

“ _No one asked you,_ Ginger.”

Larry got up. “Excuse me a sec.” He went forward to the shop.

The man on the screen continued to talk. “ _People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff._ ”

“Started well, that sentence,” Sally smirked.

“ _It got away from me, yeah._ ”

She furrowed her eyebrows. “Okay, that was weird. Like you can hear me.”

“ _Well, I can hear you,_ ” the man on the screen said.

“Good,” Ginger said to the screen. “You’re a moron.”

“ _Shut up._ ”

Sally frantically paused the screen and Larry came back in. “Okay, that's enough. I've had enough now. I've had a long day and I've had bloody enough!” Sally shouted at the TV. Larry and Ginger stared at her. “Sorry. Bad day.”

“Got you the list,” Larry said.

“What?”

“The seventeen DVDs. I thought you might be interested.”

“Yeah, great,” Sally said. “Thanks.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sally Sparrow left the hospital after Billy Shipton died. Ginger was waiting for her just outside the doors.

“Ready to listen, Sally Sparrow?” she said, falling into step with the blond.

“Who are you? How are you mixed up in all this?” Sally asked.

“The Doctor was sent back to 1969 by the Weeping Angels. It’s my job to help you save him,” Ginger answered.

Sally let that sink in. “What are Weeping Angels?”

“The Lonely Assassins,” Ginger said. “They’re the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely. No stabbing, no shooting, they just send you into the past and let you live to death. The rest of your life is used up and blown away in the blink of an eye. You die in the past, and in the present they consume the energy of all the days you might have had. They live off the potential energy.”

“And what do they want with me?”

“It’s not you they want. It’s the key in your pocket. Call Larry, I’ll meet you two at Wester Drumlins.”

And with that, she disappeared into the crowded night.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ginger was waiting for them in the drawing room of the Wester Drumlins Estate. Larry Nightingale started setting up the portable DVD player and Sally Sparrow studied the girl with the red hair, who was rocking back and forth on her heels, impatiently.

“Got somewhere to be?”

“Yeah, actually,” Ginger snipped. “And the quicker we help him, the sooner I can go home.”

“Why don’t you just go now?” Sally asked.

“We’re in a time loop, and a particularly nasty one at that,” Ginger explained. “Billy wasn’t joking when he said he could’ve destroyed two thirds of the universe. Messing with a loop could rip a hole in time and space.”

“Right,” Sally said. “No pressure."

Larry put a DVD in the player. “Okay, this is the one with the clearest sound. Slightly better picture quality on this one, but I don't know—”

“It doesn't matter.”

“Okay. There he is.” The Doctor popped up on the screen.

“The Doctor,” the girls said in unison.

Larry looked at them. “Who's the Doctor?”

Sally pointed at the screen. “He's the Doctor.”

“ _Yup. That's me,_ ” the Doctor said onscreen.

“Okay, that was scary,” Sally muttered.

“No, it sounds like he's replying, but he always says that,” Larry reassured her.

“ _Yes, I do._ ”

“And that.”

“ _Yup. And this._ ”

“He can hear us,” Sally breathed. “Oh my God, you can really hear us?”

“Of course he can't hear us,” Larry dismissed. “Look, I've got a transcript. See? Everything he says. Yup, that's me. Yes, I do. Yup, and this. Next it's—”

“ _Are you going to read out the whole thing?_ ”

Sally took a deep breath. “Who are you?”

“ _I'm a time traveller,_ ” the Doctor answered. “ _Or I was. I'm stuck in 1969._ ”

A dark skinned woman poked her head in. “ _We're stuck. All of space and time, he promised me. Now I've got a job in a shop. I've got to support him!_ ”

Ginger chuckled.

“ _Martha,_ ” the Doctor scolded.

“ _Sorry._ ”

“I've seen this bit before,” Sally said.

The Doctor nodded onscreen. “ _Quite possibly._ ”

“1969, that's where you're talking from?” she questioned.

He nodded again. “ _Afraid so._ ”

“But you're replying to me. You can't know exactly what I'm going to say, forty years before I say it.”

“ _Thirty-eight,_ ” the Doctor corrected her.

Ginger shook her head. “Always have to be right, don’t you?”

“ _Oh, like you’ve never corrected me before._ ”

Larry grabbed a pen and sat down with the transcript on his lap. “I'm getting this down. I'm writing in your bits!” he said, excitedly.

“How? How is this possible? Tell me,” Sally demanded.

“ _People don't understand time. It's not what you think it is._ ”

“Then what is it?”

“ _Complicated._ ”

“Tell me,” she insisted.

“ _Very complicated._ ”

Ginger snorted. “Helpful, Dad.”

“ _No one asked you,_ Ginger _,_ ” the Doctor snapped.

“I'm clever and I'm listening,” Sally said. “And don't patronize me because people have died, and I'm not happy. Tell me.”

“ _People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff._ ”

Sally nodded. “Yeah, I've seen this bit before. You said that sentence got away from you.”

“ _It got away from me, yeah._ ”

“Next thing you're going to say is, ‘well I can hear you’.”

“ _Well, I can hear you._ ”

“Liar,” Ginger coughed.

“ _Shut up._ ”

Sally shook her head. “This isn't possible.”

Larry grinned. “No. It's brilliant!”

“ _Well, I can’t hear you, exactly,_ ” the Doctor amended. “ _But I know everything you're going to say.”_

“Always gives me the shivers, that bit,” Larry commented.

“How can you know what I'm going to say?” Sally asked.

“ _Look to your left,_ ” was the Doctor’s answer.

“What does he mean by look to your left?” Larry wondered aloud. “I've written tons about that on the forums. I think it's a political statement.”

Ginger rolled her eyes. “He means Sally, nimrod,” she said. “He’s telling her to look at you. What are you doing?”

“I'm writing in your bits. That way I've got a complete transcript of the whole conversation. Wait until this hits the net. This will explode the egg forums.”

“ _I've got a copy of the finished transcript. It's on my autocue,_ ” the Doctor said.

Sally frowned. “How can you have a copy of the finished transcript? It's still being written.”

“ _I told you. I'm a time traveller. I got it in the future._ ”

“Yes, because ‘time travel’ is your answer for everything. Well done,” Ginger grumbled, sarcastically.

“Okay, let me get my head round this,” Sally said. "You're reading aloud from a transcript of a conversation you're still having.”

The Doctor waved his hand dismissively. “ _Yeah. Wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey._ ”

“Get to the point, already,” Ginger insisted.

The Doctor straightened up. “ _What matters is we can communicate. We have got big problems now. They have taken the blue box, haven't they? The angels have the phone box._ ”

“The angels have the phone box. That's my favorite. I've got it on a t-shirt,” Larry said.

Sally looked back at the Doctor. “What do you mean, angels? You mean those statue things?”

“ _Creatures from another world,_ ” the Doctor said, as if it explained everything.

“But they're just statues!” Sally protested.

“ _Only when you see them._ ”

“What does that mean?”

“ _The Lonely Assassins, they used to be called. No one quite knows where they came from, but they're as old as the universe, or very nearly, and they have survived this long because they have the most perfect defense system ever evolved. They are quantum-locked. They don't exist when they're being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature, they freeze into rock. No choice. It's a fact of their biology. In the sight of any living thing, they literally turn to stone. And you can't kill a stone. Of course, a stone can't kill you either. But then you turn your head away, then you blink, and oh yes it can._ ”

Ginger elbowed Sally and pointed out the window where a Weeping Angel stood. Sally turned to Larry. “Don't take your eyes off that,” she instructed.

“ _That's why they cover their eyes. They're not weeping. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. The loneliest creatures in the universe. And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now._ ”

“What am I supposed to do?” Sally asked.

“ _The blue box, it's my time machine. There is a world of time energy in there they could feast on forever, but the damage they could do could switch off the sun. You have got to send it back to me._ ”

“How? How?”

The Doctor leaned back. “ _And that's it, I'm afraid. There's no more from you on the transcript, that's the last I've got. I don't know what stopped you talking, but I can guess. They're coming. The angels are coming for you. But listen, your life could depend on this. Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink. Good luck._ ”

“No! Don't! You can't!” Sally cried.

“I'll rewind him,” Larry offered.

“What good would that do?” she demanded. Then, her eyes widened. “You're not looking at the statue.”

“Neither are you.”

The Angel was towering over them, reaching out, mouth wide open. Ginger said something in a different language.

It sounded suspiciously like a curse.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One year after the incident with the Weeping Angels and the Doctor, Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale co-ran a DVD store. The went back inside, hand in hand, after giving the Doctor and his companion the information they’d need when they got stranded in 1969.

“Well aren’t you two adorable?”

The duo jumped. Leaning against the counter was a girl with ginger hair and turquoise eyes.

“Ginger!” Sally exclaimed.

Ginger made a face. “You couldn’t come up with something a little better than my hair color?”

“You never told us your name,” Larry defended.

“I suppose since Dad had the packet now I can tell you,” Ginger mused, and then held out her hand. “Let me properly introduce myself. I’m Lilith.”

Sally smiled and shook her hand. “Nice to properly meet you, Lilith.”

“You know,” Lilith said, conversationally, “I just came from 1935 and you’ll never guess who I ran into. A certain Katherine Nightingale. She was oddly pleased to hear that her friend and her brother got together.”

“But… just two seconds ago…” Larry stammered.

“Time traveler,” Lilith sing-songed. “I live my life out of order, _amigo_.”

“Why did you come back?” asked Sally.

“I wanted to thank you, Sparrow,” Lilith said. “You kept your cool in a thoroughly un-cool situation and you helped my dad when I couldn’t. So thanks.”

“You’re welcome, then,” Sally said.

Lilith fiddled with the large, techy looking watch on her wrist. “Sally Sparrow, Larry Nightingale, do me a favor?”

“Yeah?”

She grinned. “Keep being fantastic.” And, in a flash of light, she was gone.


	5. Meanwhile at the End of the Universe Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the TARDIS takes them to the end of the Universe, the Doctor, Lilith, Captain Jack, and Martha work to help the last of humanity reach Utopia; Lilith prepares herself as her most trying challenge yet begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am aware that it's 2:30am in Illinois, but I'll be busy all day so here you go.

Lilith flounced into the console room as the Doctor was setting the coordinates. “What do you think?” she asked, showing off her usual turtleneck tank top and jeans, her sonic blaster hanging at her hip.

The Doctor looked up. “You wear the same style everyday, Lilith,” he reminded her.

“I meant the color, hypocrite.”

“TARDIS blue, very nice,” Martha complimented.

“Why, thank you, Martha.” Lilith stuck her tongue out at the Doctor as he landed the TARDIS with the customary shake. “Where are we?”

“Cardiff!” the Doctor declared.

“Cardiff?” asked Martha.

The Doctor danced around the console, flipping a few switches. “Ah, but the thing about Cardiff, it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California and the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel.”

“It’s basically a pit stop,” Lilith explained. Martha nodded.

“Exactly. Should only take twenty seconds. The rift's been active.”

“Wait a minute!” Martha said. “They had an earthquake in Cardiff a couple of years ago. Was that you?”

“Bit of trouble with the Slitheen.” The Doctor made a face at the memory and Lilith shuddered. “A long time ago. Lifetimes. I was a different man back then.”

“Literally,” Lilith muttered. She slipped her hand into his. ‘ _Thinking about Rose?_ ’

‘ _Rose and Jack,_ ’ the Doctor thought back sadly.

Jack. Lilith furrowed her eyebrows. The familiar sensation of memories trying to break loose filled her head. It had only been a year since she had last seen him. Why—?

“ _Finito_! All powered up.” The Doctor’s eyes flicked to the scanner and he frowned.

“Something wrong there, Dad?” Lilith asked.

The Doctor waved her off. “Nothing to worry about.” He pulled the lever, setting the time rotor in motion.

‘ _Liar,_ ’ she accused.

‘ _Not now, Lilith._ ’

Lilith opened her mouth to verbally accuse her father of hiding something, but she was cut off by a loud bang and the console exploding into sparks.

“Whoa! What's that?” Martha shouted.

The Doctor grabbed at the monitor. The console sparked some more. “We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible.”

“Why? What happens then?”

The Doctor and Lilith shared wide-eyed looks of horror. “We're going to the end of the universe.”

“Why is the TARDIS taking us that far?” Lilith demanded. “Dad, what did you see?”

“Nothing!” the Doctor insisted.

“Our timeship is taking us to the end of the freaking universe! She doesn’t do that for nothing! What are you hiding?”

The TARDIS shook one last time before landing, and Lilith realized what was going on. The last time she had seen Jack, he had run off after realizing the TARDIS was in Cardiff. That must've been what had happened. The TARDIS had freaked out in an attempt to get away from him. 

The Doctor brushed himself off, ignoring Lilith’s glare. “Well, we've landed.”

“So what's out there?” Martha asked, hesitantly.

“I don't know,” the Doctor said.

“Say that again. That's rare.”

“Not even the Time Lords came this far. We should leave. We should go. We should really, really go.” He glanced at Lilith.

She struggled to keep her face in a scowl, but failed and matched his grin instead. The prospect of the unknown was too intriguing.

The three of them raced to the door.

Outside, Lilith spotted someone lying on the ground near the TARDIS. Apparently, Martha did too. “Oh my God!” She ran over to the body. “Can't get a pulse. Hold on. You've got that medical kit thing.” She sprinted back into the TARDIS.

Lilith moved closer, and was torn between grinning and scowling at the Doctor when her suspicions about the TARDIS' freak out were confirmed.

The Doctor frowned at the corpse. “Hello again. Oh, I'm sorry.”

“Here we go. Get out of the way.” Martha knelt down next to the man. "It's a bit odd, though. Not very hundred trillion. That coat's more like World War Two.”

“Don’t insult the coat,” Lilith warned. “He loves that coat.”

“I think he came with us,” the Doctor said.

Martha looked at him. “How do you mean, from Earth?”

“Must have been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS all the way through the vortex,” he mused.

“Typical,” Lilith snorted.

“What, do you know him?” Martha asked.

“That, Miss Jones,” Lilith said with a grin, “is my Uncle Jack.”

“But he's... I'm sorry, there's no heartbeat. There's nothing. He's dead.”

Jack gasped and grabbed Martha, who screamed. Lilith chuckled.

“It's all right,” Martha said. “Just breathe deep. I've got you.”

Jack shot her a smile. “Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?”

“Martha Jones.” She smiled back.

“Nice to meet you, Martha Jones.”

Lilith groaned. “Oh, don't start,” the Doctor complained.

“I was only saying hello!” Jack snapped.

“I don't mind,” Martha smiled, helping Jack up.

“Doctor,” the man greeted, coolly.

The Doctor responded in the same tone. “Captain.”

“Good to see you.”

“And you. Same as ever. Although, have you had work done?”

“You can talk!” Jack snipped.

The Doctor looked at him, confused for a moment. “Oh yes, the face. Regeneration. How did you know this was me?”

“The police box kind of gives it away. I've been following you for a long time.” Jack paused. “You abandoned me.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “For the last time, Uncle Jack, it was _me_. I thought we went over this.”

Jack grinned and pulled her into a tight hug. “Hey there, sweetheart.”

The Doctor frowned. “Since when do you call him Uncle Jack?”

“Since I worked with him for ten years,” Lilith said, flippantly.

“Ten years?” Martha asked, disbelievingly. “You can’t be older than twenty.”

“I’m one hundred and twenty five, thank you,” Lilith sniffed.

“Just got to ask. The Battle of Canary Wharf,” Jack said slowly. “We saw the list of the dead. It said Rose Tyler. Lilith wouldn't say, but...”

Lilith saw the Doctor’s face fall before he schooled it into an expression of joviality. “Oh, no! Sorry, she's alive.”

“Thank god,” Jack breathed.

“Parallel world, safe and sound. And Mickey, and her mother.”

“Oh, yes!” Jack hugged the Doctor ecstatically, and then hugged Lilith again. “But then how...?” he whispered.

“Spoilers,” she whispered back.

Martha looked down, dejected. “Good old Rose,” she muttered.

Lilith slung her arm around the other woman’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Uncle Jack wasn’t into her like that. Dad made sure if it. You know how rule number one is ‘don’t wander off’? Rule number one for Jack was ‘hands off the blonde.’ Dad was very possessive back then.”

“Back then,” Jack scoffed.

“Oi!” the Doctor protested.

“Besides, I’ve heard Jack’s not as great in bed as he boasts.”

“Says who?” he huffed, indignantly.

“Believe it or not,” Lilith said, “I happen to know people you sleep with in the future.”

Jack raised his eyebrows, interested. “And who might that be?”

“ _Spoilers_!” she sing-songed.

The four of them started walking. Jack was telling a story of some kind, but Lilith was only half paying attention. Her thoughts were back a decade to when the TARDIS had given them a reluctant landing. The Doctor had just laughed it off and went barreling into the adventure. And where did that leave them? TARDIS-less on an impossible planet with Satan.

Even though it was likely because of Jack clinging to her shell through the vortex, the ship was clearly agitated and he had laughed it off again. Was history going to repeat itself?

“So there I was,” Jack was saying, “stranded in the year two hundred one hundred, ankle deep in Dalek dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this.” He held up his wrist. “I used to be a Time Agent. It's a vortex manipulator, like Lilith’s. He's not the only one who can time travel.”

“Oh, excuse me. That is not time travel!” the Doctor interrupted. “It's like, I've got a sports car and you've got a space hopper.”

“Oh ho. Boys and their toys.” Martha laughed.

“Seriously,” Lilith snickered.

“I thought 21st century, the best place to find the Doctor, except that I got it a little wrong. Arrived in 1869, this thing burnt out, so it was useless.”

“Told you.”

“I had to live through the entire twentieth century waiting for a version of them that would coincide with me. Caught a glimpse of you that Christmas, but the dynamic seemed off, so I kept my distance.”

“Dickens!” Lilith grinned at the memory. “It was Rose's second trip.”

“But that makes you more than one hundred years old,” Martha said.

Jack grinned. “And looking good, don't you think? So I went to the time rift, based myself there because I knew you'd come back to refuel. Lilith's showed up in the late 1990's and a decade later I finally get a signal on this detecting you and here we are.”

“But the thing is, how come you left him behind in the first place, Lilith?” Martha asked.

“We were a bit busy,” the Doctor said.

Martha scoffed. “Is that what happens, though, seriously? Do you two just get bored with us one day and disappear?”

“Not if you're blonde,” Jack muttered.

“Oh, she was blonde? Oh, what a surprise!”

“Look, Rose had just absorbed the vortex, Dad was about to die, and the TARDIS certainly wasn’t going to let Jack in. What was I supposed to do?” Lilith demanded.

“You three!” the Doctor snapped. “We're at the end of the universe, all right? Right at the edge of knowledge itself and you're busy… blogging! Come on.” He went off.

“Regeneration and Rose. Two bad topics,” Lilith said, remorsefully, following the Doctor.

They looked down over a cliff onto a high tech construction of some kind. “Is that a city?” Martha marveled.

“A city or a hive, or a nest, or a conglomeration. Like it was grown. But look, there.” The Doctor pointed. “That's like pathways, roads? Must have been some sort of life, long ago.”

“What killed it?” Martha wondered.

“Time,” Lilith said, shrugging. “Just time. It’s the end of the universe, everything's dying now. All the great civilizations are gone. It’s not dark because it’s night. All of the stars have burned up and faded away.”

Jack looked around. “They must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death.”

“Well, Martha, Lilith and I, maybe,” the Doctor agreed. “Not so sure about you, Jack.”

Lilith elbowed him in the side. Hard. ‘ _Rude, Dad._ ’

If Martha thought the comment odd, she didn’t say anything. “What about the people? Does no one survive?”

“I suppose we have to hope life will find a way,” the Doctor said.

“Well, he's not doing too bad.” Jack pointed to someone dashing through the city, pursued by a group of people.

The Doctor frowned. “Is it me, or does that look like a hunt? Come on!”

The Doctor, Lilith, Jack, and Martha ran to help. “Not much has changed, has it?” Jack laughed.

Lilith laughed with him. “Were you expecting anything less?”

They met up with the running man. “They're coming! They're coming!” he cried.

Jack aimed a revolver at the group and Lilith pulled out her blaster.

“Lilith, Jack, don't you dare!” the Doctor shouted. Jack fired into the air, and the noise stopped the group in its tracks.

“What the hell are they?” Martha asked.

“There's more of them. We've got to keep going!” the man insisted.

“I've got a ship nearby. It's safe. It's not far; it's over there.” The Doctor pointed up the cliff where another group of people appeared.

“Or not,” Lilith muttered.

“We're close to the silo,” the man said. “If we get to the silo, then we're safe.”

The Doctor turned to his companions. “Silo?”

“Silo.”

“Silo for me.”

“I’m good with the silo.”

The group seemed to snap out of whatever shock they were in from the gunfire just as the humans and two Gallifreyans started running again. Once the silo was in sight, the man yelled, “It's the Futurekind! Open the gate!”

“Show me your teeth!” a guard shouted. “Show me your teeth!”

“Show him your teeth!” the man told the four when they reached the gate. Everyone grimaced, displaying their teeth.

“Human! Let them in! Let them in!” The metal gates opened and they ran through. “Close! Close! Close!”

A guard fired his machine gun at the ground in front of the group as they got too close.

“Humans,” the leader growled. “Humani. Make feast.”

“Go back to where you came from. I said, go back. Back!” the guard ordered.

“Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down,” Jack rolled his eyes.

“He's not my responsibility,” the Doctor said.

Jack looked at him. “And I am? Ha, that makes a change.”

“Uncle Jack?”

“Yes, Lilith?”

“Shut up.”

“Kind watch you. Kind hungry,” the leader of the Futurekind snarled. The group backed away and left.

“Thanks for that,” the Doctor said to the guard.

He nodded. “Right. Let's get you inside.”

“My name is Padra Toc Shafecane. Tell me. Just tell me, can you take me to Utopia?” the man asked the guard.

 _Utopia: a place or state of things in which everything is perfect._ But for some reason, the word made Lilith’s stomach twist into knots. Something was wrong.

* * *

“It looks like a box, a big blue box,” the Doctor was saying to someone once they got inside. “I'm sorry, but I really need it back. It's stuck out there.”

“You know, if you let Jack and I kill any Futurekind we come across, we could just go get her,” Lilith muttered.

“I'm sorry, but my family were heading for the silo,” Padra said. “Did they get here? My mother is Kistane Shafecane. My brother's name is Beltone.”

“The computers are down but you can check the paperwork,” Atillo informed him. “Creet! Passenger needs help.” A young boy came over with a clipboard. Padra went to him. Atillo turned back to the Doctor. “A blue box, you said?”

“Big, tall, wooden. Says Police.”

“We're driving out for the last water collection. I'll see what I can do.”

“Thank you,” the Doctor said.

“Sorry, but how old are you?” Martha asked Creet.

“Old enough to work,” Creet answered. “This way.”

They followed him down a hallway. People had put pictures of their loved ones on the wall as they slept on the floor. Creet called out the names of Padra’s family.

“It's like a refugee camp,” Martha whispered.

“Stinking,” Jack declared, then glanced at the refugees. “Oh, sorry. No offence.”

The Doctor’s smile grew. “Don't you see that? The ripe old smell of humans. You survived. Oh, you might have spent a million years evolving into clouds of gas, and another million as downloads, but you always revert to the same basic shape. The fundamental humans.”

“Now here you are, at the end of the universe,” Lilith said.

“Indomitable! That's the word. Indomitable! Ha!” the Doctor laughed.

“Is there a Kistane Shafecane?” Creet asked the people that lined the hallway.

A woman stood up. “That's me.”

“Mother?” Padra asked.

“Oh, my God. Padra,” Kistane breathed.

A young man stood up; Jack shook his hand. “Captain Jack Harkness. And who are you?”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “ _Jack_.”

“Stop it,” the Doctor warned. “Give us a hand with this. It's half deadlocked. I need you to overwrite the code. Let's find out where we are.”

Together, the Doctor and Jack opened the door which turned out to be part way up a giant rocket silo. The Doctor nearly fell in. Jack caught him. “Thanks.”

“Now that is what I call a rocket,” Martha said.

“They're not refugees, they're passengers,” Lilith realized.

“He said they were going to Utopia.”

“The perfect place. Hundred trillion years, it's the same old dream. You recognize those engines?” the Doctor asked Jack.

Jack shook his head. “Nope. Whatever it is, it's not rocket science. But it's hot, though.”

“Boiling,” the Doctor agreed. They shut the door again. “But if the universe is falling apart, what does Utopia mean?”

An old man approached them. “The Doctor?”

He raised his hand. “That's me.”

“Good! Good! Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good,” the man said repeatedly, dragging the Doctor away.

The Doctor looked back at Lilith, Martha, and Jack. “It's good apparently.”

The knots in Lilith’s gut tightened as they followed. Memories fought against the locks in her mind. _Run!_ a voice in her head screamed at her. _This is bad! That man is bad! Get to the TARDIS and run!_

Lilith must have been projecting her distress because she immediately heard the Doctor mentally ask, ‘ _Are you alright?_ ’

‘ _I don’t like this place,_ ’ she told him. ‘ _Something is wrong._ ’

Something was very wrong.


	6. Meanwhile at the End of the Universe Part 2

The professor led them to a laboratory, immediately dragging the Doctor over to various pieces of equipment. A young woman, or what Lilith assumed to be a young woman, with an insect-like head greeted them. “Chan welcome tho.”

Lilith smiled tightly at her, the voice in her head continued to whisper words of warning.

“Hello,” Martha said. “Who are you?”

“Chan Chantho tho,” Chantho replied with a smile.

Jack shook her hand. “Captain Jack Harkness.”

The Doctor looked up from the piece of machinery he was examining. “Stop it.”

“Can't I say hello to anyone?”

“Nope!” Lilith popped the p.

“Chan I do not protest tho,” Chantho said, shyly.

Jack winked at her. “Maybe later, Blue.”

Lilith elbowed him. “ _Jack_ , have we not talked about this?”

Jack scowled in response and Lilith turned her attention to her father.

“And all this feeds into the rocket?” the Doctor was asking.

“Yeah, except without a stable footprint, you see, we're unable to achieve escape velocity,” the professor explained. “If only we could harmonize the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. What do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?”

The Doctor looked around the room. “Well, er, basically, sort of, not a clue.”

The professor deflated. “Nothing?”

“I'm not from around these parts. I've never seen a system like it. Sorry.”

“No, no. I'm sorry. It's my fault. There's been so little help.”

“Oh my God.” They all turned to look at Martha who had pulled a transparent container out of Jack’s backpack. The container that happened to contain the Doctor's hand. “You've got a hand? A hand in a jar. A hand. In a jar. In your bag.”

Lilith grinned. “Dad, check it out!”

The Doctor came over. “But that, that, that's my hand.”

Jack shrugged. “I said I had a Doctor detector.”

“Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?” Chantho asked, looking slightly horrified.

“Not on my street!” Martha exclaimed. “What do you mean, that's your hand? You've got both your hands, I can see them.”

“Long story. I lost my hand Christmas Day, in a sword fight,” the Doctor said.

“Was that 2005 or 2006?” Lilith asked with a frown.

“2006, we skipped 2005.”

Martha shook her head, disbelievingly. “What? And you grew another hand?”

“Er, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah.” He waved at her. “Hello.”

“Might I ask, what species are you?” the professor questioned.

“Time Lord, one of the last. Heard of them?” Neither the professor nor Chantho reacted. “Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling.”

“Chan it is said that I am the last of my species too tho,” said Chantho.

“Sorry, what was your name?” the Doctor asked.

“My assistant and good friend, Chantho,” the professor introduced. “A survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassairo, before we took refuge.”

The Doctor sat up. “The city outside, that was yours?”

Chantho nodded. “Chan the conglomeration died tho.”

“Conglomeration. That's what I said.” He looked at Lilith smugly.

She face palmed. “Dad, this is where you say _sorry_.”

“Oh, yes. Sorry.”

“Chan most grateful tho.”

Martha was still staring at the Doctor incredulously. “You grew another hand?”

He wiggled his fingers. “Hello, again.”

She sighed. “All this time and you're still full of surprises.”

“Chan you are most unusual tho,” Chantho commented.

“You have no idea, _amiga_ ,” Lilith said.

“So,” Jack pushed the conversation along, “what about those things outside? The Beastie Boys. What are they?”

“We call them the Futurekind,” the professor explained. “Which is a myth in itself, but it's feared they are what we will become unless we reach Utopia.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “And Utopia is?”

“Oh, every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Bit of a hermit.” 

The professor frowned. “A hermit with a daughter and friends?”

“Hermits United. We meet up every ten years and swap stories about caves. It's good fun, for a hermit. So, er, Utopia?”

The professor showed them a display on the gravitational field navigation system. “The call came from across the stars, over and over again. Come to Utopia. Originating from that point.”

“Where is that?” the Doctor asked.

“Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness, out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night.”

“What do you think's out there?” Lilith mused.

“We can't know. A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?”

“Oh, yes,” the Doctor said.

 _No!_ screamed the voice in the back of Lilith’s head. _It’s not! Danger! Run!_

“I, er, ahem, right, that's enough talk,” stammered the professor, who had been clenching his eyes shut for some reason. “There's work to do. Now if you could leave, thank you.”

The Doctor frowned. “You all right?”

“Yes, I'm fine,” the professor assured him, turning back to his equipment. “And busy.”

“Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it?” the Doctor said. “This footprint mechanism thing, it's not working.”

“We'll find a way.”

“You haven't told them, have you?” Lilith guessed. “All those people out there, they still think they're going to fly.”

The professor sat down. “Well, it's better to let them live in hope.”

“Quite right, too.” The volume of the Doctor’s voice increased, indicating to Lilith he was about to do something clever. “And I must say, Professor er, what was it?”

“Yana.”

 

> _He called himself Professor Yana. If I had been paying attention…_

“Professor Yana. This new science is well beyond me, but all the same, a boost reversal circuit, in any time frame, must be a circuit, which reverses the boost. So, I wonder, what would happen if I did this?” He soniced the end of a cable and pulled. Power surged through the machines.

“Chan it's working tho!” cried Chantho.

“But how did you do that?”

“Oh, we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant.”

 _Bad idea. Bad things will happen,_  the voice said, ominously.

 _Shut up._ Lilith told it.

* * *

“ _All passengers prepare for boarding. I repeat: all passengers prepare for immediate boarding. Destination, Utopia. All troops report to silo. I repeat, all troops report to silo. All passengers prepare for immediate boarding. All passengers prepare for immediate boarding.”_

The Doctor and Professor Yana continued to work while Lilith sat in the corner watching nervously. The Doctor senses her unease and sent her a wave of assurance. She shook her head at him and put up her telepathic walls, hoping that it might calm the voice that continued to tell her to _run!_ No such luck.

The Doctor sniffed one of the wires. “Is this?”

“Yes, gluten extract.” Professor Yana nodded. “Binds the neutralino map together.”

“That's food. You've built this system out of food and string and staples?” the Doctor marveled. “Professor Yana, you're a genius.”

“Says the man who made it work.”

“Oh, it's easy coming in at the end, but you're stellar. This is, this is magnificent. And I don't often say that because, well, because I’m me.”

Lilith snorted.

“Well, even my title is an affectation,” Professor Yana admitted. “There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years. I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another.”

“If you'd been born in a different time, you'd be revered. I mean it. Throughout the galaxies."

“Oh, those damned galaxies. They had to go and collapse. Some admiration would have been nice. Yes, just a little, just once.”

“Well, you've got it now. But that footprint engine thing. You can't activate it from onboard. It's got to be from here. You're staying behind.”

“With Chantho,” the professor confirmed. “She won't leave without me. Simply refuses.”

“You'd give your life so they could fly,” the Doctor said quietly.

“Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia. Time I had some sleep.”

“ _Professor, tell the Doctor we've found his blue box,_ ” a voice said over the PA.

“Doctor? Lilith?” Jack called. Lilith went over to him and he pointed to the monitor showing the TARDIS.

 _Good! Get the TARDIS! Leave this place! t_ he voice insisted.

“Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I may just have found you a way out,” the Doctor said, patting Professor Yana on the shoulder.

The TARDIS was brought into the laboratory and the Doctor is dragged a power cable out. “Extra power. Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting? Jack, you're in charge of the retro feeds.”

Martha and Chantho came in. “Oh, am I glad to see that thing.” Martha grinned.

Chantho went over to Professor Yana, who was sitting down looking distracted. “Chan Professor, are you all right tho?”

“Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. Just get on with it.”

“Connect those circuits into the spar, same as that last lot. But quicker,” Jack instructed the two ladies.

“Ooh, yes, sir.”

“You don't have to keep working,” the Doctor said to the professor. “We can handle it.”

“It's just a headache,” Professor Yana said. “It's just, just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head.”

“What sort of noise?” the Doctor asked.

“It's the sound of drums. More and more, as though it's getting closer.”

  

> _I believe the drumbeat made it worse, the constant sound of the drums._

Lilith put her head in her hands. Memories pounding in her head, just out of reach. Not for the first time, she cursed her father for locking them away. Something bad was going to happen. Something that she wanted to prevent and she _couldn’t_ because of the stupid rules.

“Captain, keep the dials below the red,” Professor Yana ordered Jack.

“Where is that room?” the Doctor asked.

“It's underneath the rocket. Fix the couplings and the footprint can work. But the entire chamber is flooded with stet radiation.”

The Doctor frowned. “Stet? Never heard of it.”

“You wouldn't want to,” the professor muttered. “But it's safe enough, if we can hold the radiation back from here.” They watched the monitor showing a man connecting up equipment. An alarm sounded. “It's rising. Naught point two. Keep it level!”

“Yes, sir,” Jack said.

The second connection was made. The lights flickered and another alarm went off. “Chan we're losing power tho!” Chantho yelled.

“Radiation's rising!”

“We've lost control!”

“The chamber's going to flood.”

“Jack, override the vents!”

 

> _I think it was the Futurekind. If it hadn’t sabotaged the chamber, maybe things would’ve turned out different._

Jack pulled out two power cables. “We can jump start the override.”

“Don't! It's going to flare!” the Doctor warned. Power surged through Jack as he held the live ends together. He got electrocuted and fell to the ground.

“Dumb,” Lilith grumbled, but knelt beside him.

Martha looked at her in shock. “Lilith, he just got electrocuted!”

She shrugged. “He’ll be fine.”

“He’s might be dead!” She went over and started giving Jack mouth to mouth.

“Chan don't touch the cables tho,” Chantho warned.

“Oh, I'm so sorry,” Professor Yana said.

The Doctor stood there, as impassive as Lilith, with his hands in his pockets. “The chamber's flooded with radiation, yes?”

“Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing,” the professor sighed.

“Oh, I don't know. Martha, leave him.” The Doctor pulled her away.

“You've got to let me try!” she protested.

“Come on, come on. Just listen to me, leave him alone. Lilith?”

She gave the Doctor a look. ' _I_ _t's better when someone's there when he wakes up._ '

The Doctor shrugged and turned his attention back to Yana. It strikes me, “Professor; you've got a room, which no man can enter without dying. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Well…” the Doctor began. Jack gasped as he returned to life. “I think I've got just the man.”

Jack caught his breath. “Was someone kissing me?” He glanced at Lilith

She rolled her eyes and shoved him.

* * *

The Doctor and Jack ran down to the radiation filled chamber while Lilith, Chantho, Martha and Professor Yana stayed in the laboratory.

Martha sat at the monitor. “We lost picture when that thing flared up. Doctor, are you there?”

“ _Receiving, yeah. He's inside,_ ” came the Doctor’s voice.

“And still alive?”

“ _Oh, yes._ ”

“But he should evaporate!” Professor Yana said, incredulously. “What sort of a man is he?”

Martha shrugged. “I've only just met him. The Doctor sort of travels through time and space and picks people up. God, I make us sound like stray dogs. Maybe we are.”

“You’re humans, apes,” Lilith corrected. “Not dogs.”

Professor Yana frowned. “He travels in time?”

“Don't ask me to explain it,” Martha said, shaking her head. “That's a TARDIS, that box thing. The sports car of time travel, he says.”

The memories continued to make Lilith’s head pound and the voice continued to issue warnings. _Take Martha! Get in the TARDIS! Run!_ She couldn’t focus on the conversations, but from what she caught, she could tell that the Doctor was trying to explain to Jack why he couldn’t die.

Martha rolled her eyes. “I never understand half the things he says.” She looked at Professor Yana, who looked to be in pain. “What's wrong?”

“Chan Professor, what is it tho?” Chantho asked, worriedly.

“Time travel,” Yana said. “They say there was time travel back in the old days. I never believed. But what would I know? Stupid old man. Never could keep time. Always late, always lost. Even this thing never worked.” He held up a fob watch. “Time and time and time again. Always running out on me.”

Lilith looked away. She couldn’t look at the watch, it made her head pound more. Memories bashed against the locks in her mind, desperately trying to break free. _Danger! He’s dangerous! Take your companions and run!_

She gripped her head. It hurt like hell. _He’s evil! Run! Run! Remember the stories! Remember he’s—_

Lilith swore. This time in English.

“Lilith?” Martha frowned. "Is there a problem

“Yeah, we’ve got a problem. _Una problema enorme._ I’ve got to go. I’ve got to warn Dad. Martha, what ever you do, don’t let him open that watch!” Lilith sprinted out of the laboratory and down the hall to where Jack was in the radiation filled room. “Dad!”

The Doctor looked at her, surprised at the panic rolling off her in waves. “Lilith, what’s wrong?”

“Dad, we’re in trouble. Big trouble, huge trouble.”

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor repeated.

“Professor Yana, he’s got a fob watch. With _Circular Gallifreyan_.”

“Circular Gallifreyan?” Jack asked.

An alarm sounded. “Keep it level, Jack. Circular Gallifreyan is the written language of the Time Lords. That’s not possible, Lilith.”

“It is! Think about his name. Yana. Y-A-N-A. You are not alone. Isn’t that what the the Face said before he died?”

“He was talking about you,” the Doctor said.

“Just listen to me for once!” Lilith shouted, frustrated, as Jack came out of the chamber. “Because this time, I know better than you. I remember! I remember the stories you told me. The Time Lords brought him back for the War, gave him a whole new set of regenerations. Dad, if he opens that watch, everyone, especially you, will be in deep—!”

Martha joined them. “What happened back there?” she asked Lilith.

“Martha! Who’s watching Yana?” she demanded.

The computer counted down and the Doctor turned the last switch. The rocket engines fired.

“Lilith,” the Doctor grabbed her shoulders. “Who is he?”

Lilith looked at him with wide, panicked eyes. “He’s the Master.”

The Doctor’s jaw nearly dropped. “And we left him with my TARDIS.” He grabbed Lilith’s hand and they tore down the hallways, their companions on their heels.

 

> _To be honest, Lilith, I was terrified. I wasn’t alone; the only one besides me was my oldest friend. But he was also one of my oldest enemies._

The Doctor was pounding on the door, shouting for the professor not to open the watch. Jack was working furiously on the control pad. The Futurekind were getting closer. The voice in Lilith’s head was screaming,  _GET TO THE TARDIS FIRST! DON’T LET HIM GET AWAY! RUN!_

Jack smashed the control pad and the door slid open. The Doctor and Lilith sprinted over to where the Master had just disappeared into the TARDIS. “Let me in. Let me in!” the Doctor shouted, banging on the doors. “I'm begging you. Everything's changed! It's only the three of us! We're the only ones left! Just let me in!”

A golden glow emanated from the TARDIS as the Master regenerated inside.

“I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!” Jack shouted from here he was holding the door shut against the Futurekind. The Doctor activated the sonic screwdriver while the Master started up the time rotor.

 **“** Oh, no you don't! End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!” the Master shouted from inside.

“Doctor, stop him! Help us. They're getting in!” Martha cried.

The TARDIS dematerialized.

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan.


	7. The Never Ending Drums Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Lilith, Martha, and Jack return to present day London, horrified to discover that Prime Minister Harold Saxon is the Master and his ambitions are far worse than just taking over Earth.

_“I can't hold out much longer, Doctor!” Jack shouted from here he was holding the door shut against the Futurekind. The Doctor activated the sonic screwdriver while the Master started up the time rotor._

_“_ _Oh, no you don't! End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!” the Master shouted from inside._

_“_ _Doctor, stop him! Help us! They're getting in!” Martha cried._

_The TARDIS dematerialized._

_Lilith swore in Gallifreyan._

The Doctor grabbed Lilith’s wrist and set the coordinates on her vortex manipulator. He dragged her over to the door. “Grab hold!” he shouted. Jack and Martha put their hands on the tech and Lilith slammed on the button.

In a flash, they appeared in an alleyway. Martha leaned against the wall. “Oh, my head,” she moaned.

“Time travel without a capsule,” the Doctor said through gritted teeth. “That's a killer.”

Lilith snickered. “You losers are so weak.”

“How are you not affected?” Jack demanded.

“Oh, I am,” she assured him, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jeans and throwing him a grin. “I’m just used to it.”

Martha pushed herself off the wall and the Doctor stood straight, the four of them made their way out onto the street. “Still,” Jack said, “at least we made it. Earth, twenty first century by the looks of it. Talk about lucky."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “That wasn't luck, that was Lilith. Her vortex manipulator is more accurate than yours.”

Lilith stuck her tongue out at Jack and flopped onto a nearby bench.

Jack sighed. “The moral is, if you're going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an temporally misplaced Time Lady and her homemade vortex manipulator.”

“But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS. He could be anywhere in time and space,” Martha said.

The Doctor shook his head. “No, he's here. Trust me.”

“Who is he, anyway? And that voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor.”

“If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated,” Jack guessed.

“What does that mean?” asked Martha.

“It means he's changed his face, voice, body, everything. New man.”

A tapping noise reached Lilith’s ears. She looked around for the source. It was a beggar tapping a coin on his cup, four beats. One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four.

She shivered.

“Then how are we going to find him?”

“I'll know him, the moment I see him,” the Doctor said. “Time Lords always do.”

Martha was looking around at all of the signs. “But hold on. If he could be anyone, we missed the election. But it can't be.”

A series of public television screens on lamp posts were broadcasting the news. “ _Mister Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters.”_

“I knew I knew that voice,” she said. “When he spoke inside the TARDIS. I've heard that voice hundreds of times. I've seen him. We all have. That was the voice of Harold Saxon.”

“That's him. He's Prime Minister,” the Doctor breathed. “The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain.”

“ _This country has been sick. This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs right now,_ ” the Master looked straight at the camera, “ _i_ _s a Doctor._ ”

* * *

Martha threw open the door to her room. “Home.”

“What have you got?” the Doctor demanded. “Computer, laptop, anything. Jack, who are you phoning? You can't tell anyone we're here.”

“Just some friends of ours,” Jack said. “But there's no reply.”

“But Ianto always answers when you call,” Lilith frowned. “They all should be.”

Martha handed her laptop to the Doctor. “Here you go. Any good?”

Jack took it from him. “I can show you the Saxon websites. He's been around for ages.”

“That's so weird though,” Martha said. “It's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you.”

“We went flying all around the universe while he was here all the time.”

Martha put her hands on her hips. “You going to tell us who he is?”

“He's a Time Lord,” the Doctor answered vaguely.

“What about the rest of it? I mean, who'd call himself the Master?”

“A freaking psychopath,” Lilith muttered.

“That's all you need to know.” The Doctor turned back to Jack. “Come on, show me Harold Saxon.”

Martha switched on her answering machine. “ _Martha, where are you? I've got this new job. You won't believe it. It's weird. They just phoned me up out of the blue. I'm working for—_ ”

She turned it off again. “Oh, like it matters.”

“Former Minister of Defense,” Jack read. “First came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve. Nice work, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“But he goes back years. He's famous. Everyone knows his story. Look.” She clicked to the next page. “Cambridge University, Rugby blue. Won the Athletics thing. Wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, everything. He's got a whole life.”

“He’s got the TARDIS. Maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for decades,” Jack suggested.

“No,” the Doctor said.

“Why not? Worked for me.”

“When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now.”

“Except we still had the extrapolator on board,” Lilith said, dully.

“Eighteen months, tops. The most he could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale.”

“I was going to vote for him,” Martha murmured.

Lilith raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

“Weren't you?”

“I never paid much attention to politics.”

Martha shrugged. “Well, it was before I even met the Doctor. And I liked him.”

“Why do you say that? What was his policy? What did he stand for?” the Doctor asked.

“I don't know. He always sounded good.” She started tapping a rhythm. “Like you could trust him. Just nice. He spoke about. I can't really remember, but it was good.” One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. “Just the sound of his voice.”

“What's that?”

Martha looked at him. “What?”

“That.” He pointed at her hands. “That tapping, that rhythm. What are you doing?”

“I don't know. It's nothing. It's just, I don't know.”

A fanfare blared out from the laptop and a pop up said _Saxon Broadcast All Channels_. The Doctor turned on the TV. “Our lord and master is speaking to his kingdom.”

“ _Britain, Britain, Britain,_ ” the Master said from the Cabinet room. “ _What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen. Big Ben destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill._ _Time and time again, and the government told you nothing. Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose here today is to tell you this: citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted. A message for humanity, from beyond the stars.”_

“ _People of the Earth,_ ” a floating silver sphere said in a female voice, “w _e come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship._ ”

“ _Ooh, sweet,_ ” the Master cooed. “ _And this species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane.”_

“What?” the Doctor demanded.

“Bull,” Lilith accused.

“ _And tomorrow morning, they will appear. Not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer._ ” The Master looked at the camera, he _knew_ they were watching. “ _Oh, I don't know, every medical student?_ ”

The Doctor shot up and turned the TV around. Strapped to the back were sticks of explosives. “Out!” he yelled, grabbing the laptop. They ran out into the street just as the second floor of Martha’s house exploded in a ball of fire.

“All right?” the Doctor asked.

“Fine, yeah, fine,” Jack said.

Lilith blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Peachy.”

“Martha? What are you doing?”

Martha was dialing on her cell phone. “He knows about me. What about my family?”

“Don't tell them anything,” the Doctor warned.

“I'll do what I like!” she shouted at him. “Mum? Oh my God.”

“Dad, your companion is going to get us in trouble,” Lilith growled.

Martha spoke on the phone for a few moments before her eyes went wide. She hung up. “We've got to help them.”

“That's exactly what they want. It's a trap!” Lilith hissed.

“I. Don't. Care.”

The Doctor got in the front seat, and Jack and Lilith in the back. Martha drove like a madwoman, narrowly missing the traffic. Men were pushing Martha’s mother into a van when they came screeching to a stop.

The woman shouted something and policemen aimed their guns at the car.

“Martha, reverse!” the Doctor ordered. “Get out, now!”

Martha turned the car round as bullets slammed into it. “Move it!” Jack yelled.

“Did I not say trap? This is the perfect time for an ‘I freaking told you so’!” Lilith shouted.

“The only place we can go, planet Earth. _Great_!”

“Martha, listen to me. Do as I say,” Jack said. “We've got to ditch this car. Pull over. Right now!”

She pulled over and they got out of the car. “Martha, come on!” the Doctor insisted.

Martha followed, but took her phone back out and called her brother to tell him to hide. Lilith heard the voice on the phone change and Martha’s jaw dropped. “Let them go, Saxon. Do you hear me! Let them go!”

The Doctor took her phone. “I'm here.”

Lilith watched as her father spoke with his old friend, wandering over to a shop where TV’s were in the window.

 

> _He was just out of my reach, taunting me about the Time War. I felt useless, Lilith. There was nothing I could do._

“He can see us.” The Doctor took out a surveillance camera with his sonic. “He's got control of everything.”

“What do we do?” Martha asked.

“We've got nowhere to go,” Jack added.

“Doctor, what do we do?”

“We do the only thing we can,” Lilith said, darkly. “We run.”

* * *

Martha returned to the warehouse with a bag of takeaway food.

“How was it?” Jack asked.

“I don't think anyone saw me. Anything new?” Martha directed the question at the Doctor.

“I've got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing,” Jack said, referring to his tech.

“Yeah, I meant about my family.”

“Officially, he’ll say that the Jones family will be taken in for questioning,” Lilith, who was pacing back and forth, replied bitterly.

“Tell you what, though,” the Doctor said. “No mention of Leo.”

“He's not as daft as he looks. I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?”

Jack popped a fry in his mouth. “Nice chips.”

The Doctor tried one. “Actually, they're not bad. Lilith, do you want some?”

“No, but if someone wants to go on a Starbucks run, that’s fine by me,” Lilith snipped.

“So, Doctor, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?” Jack questioned.

“And what is he to you? Like a colleague or…?”

“A friend,” the Doctor replied. “At first.”

“I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something,” Martha said.

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Someone’s been watching too much TV.”

Jack frowned. “But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect.”

“Well, perfect to look at, maybe,” the Doctor conceded. “And it was. It was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch.

“Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad.”

“Like the Master.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, the ones that ran away,” the Doctor admitted. “I never stopped.”

Jack's bracelet beeped. “Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognize it.”

“Um, Uncle Jack? Before you patch it through to the laptop you might want to tell Dad about the thing,” Lilith suggested.

Jack shifted. “Right. Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you.” The Torchwood logo appeared on the laptop.

“You work for Torchwood,” the Doctor said in a low voice.

“I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now.”

“Everything Torchwood did, and you're part of it?” the Time Lord demanded.

“The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you in your honor and Rose's,” Jack insisted.

The Doctor turned on Lilith. “And you? You worked with them _knowing_ they were responsible.”

Lilith stood straight. “Uncle Jack’s team had nothing to do with what happened at Torchwood One. All we did was clean up the messes you were to busy to notice.”

The Doctor glared at her and hit play. A woman appeared on the screen. “ _If I haven't returned to my desk by twenty two hundred, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means if you're watching this, then I'm… Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network_.”

“What's the Archangel Network?” the Doctor asked.

“I've got Archangel,” Lilith murmered.

“'Course you do. Everyone's got it,” Martha said.

“It's a mobile phone network,” Jack explained. “Because look, it's gone worldwide. They've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel.”

Lilith stopped pacing, turquoise eyes wide. “It’s the phones!” she realized.

The Doctor caught on. “Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait.” He soniced Martha’s phone. “Hold on.” He tapped the phone against the table, and it started beeping. One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. One-two-three-four. “There it is. That rhythm, it's everywhere, ticking away in the subconscious.”

“What is it, mind control?” Martha worried.

“No,” Lilith shook her head. “It's subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it.”

“Contained in that rhythm, in layers of code, Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Whispering to the world.” The Doctor shot up. “Oh, yes! That's how he hid himself from us, because Lilith and I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth. We should have known way back. The signal cancelled him out.”

Jack sat up. “Any way you can stop it?”

“Not from down here. But now we know how he's doing it.”

“And we can fight back,” Martha said.

The Doctor grinned. “Oh, yes! Lilith, I need your phone.”

Lilith put her hand protectively over her pocket. “But I just got a new one!” she complained.

“And it’s more advanced than Martha’s. Hand it over.”

Reluctantly, she complied. The Doctor took apart the phone and the laptop, using the sonic to weld pieces to each of their respective TARDIS keys. “Four TARDIS keys. Four pieces of the TARDIS, all with low level perception properties because the TARDIS is designed to blend in. Well, sort of. But now, the Archangel Network's got a second low-level signal. Weld the key to the network and Martha, look at me. You can see me, yes?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“What about now?” He put the string with his key on it around his neck, and Martha frowned, unable to look straight at him.

“It's like I know you're there, but I don't want to know.”

He took it off. “And back again. See? It just shifts your perception a tiny little bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just unnoticed. Oh, I know what it's like! It's like, it's like when—”

“Dad,” Lilith cut him off, “I know where you’re going with this, and it’s not a road you want to go down.”

“— when you fancy someone and they don't even know you exist. That's what it's like. Come on!” He dashed off. Martha looked down, dejected.

“You too, huh?” Jack said.

“I apologize for my father’s prick-ness.” Lilith shot them both apologetic looks and raced after the Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a bit of writer's block and decided, what the heck, I'll do a 50th anniversary rewrite! t won't be posted until after series 4, but hey, at least you have something to look forward to.


	8. The Never Ending Drums Part 2

The Doctor, Lilith, Jack, and Martha stood a ways away from the plane where the American President was disembarking. The Master saluted as the President walked up to him. “Mister President, sir.”

“Mister Saxon, the British Army will stand down. From now on, UNIT has control of this operation,” the President said, briskly.

“You make it sound like an invasion.”

“First Contact policy was decided by the Security Council in 1968, and you've just gone and ignored it.”

The Master shrugged. “Well, you know what it's like. New job, all that paperwork. I think it's down the back of the settee. I did have a quick look. I found a pen, a sweet, a bus ticket and er, have you met the wife?”

President Winters narrowed his eyes. “Mister Saxon, I'm not sure what your game is but there are provisions at the United Nations to have you removed from office unless you are very, very careful. Is that understood? Are you taking this seriously? To business. We've accessed your files on these Toclafane. First Contact cannot take place on any sovereign soil. To that purpose, the aircraft carrier Valiant is en route. The rendezvous will take place there at eight am. You're trying my patience, sir.”

“So America is completely in charge?” the Master questioned with false innocence.

“Since Britain elected an ass, yes. I'll see you onboard the Valiant.” President Winters turned to leave.

“It still will be televised, though, won't it?” the Master called after him. “Because I promised, and the whole world is watching.”

“Since it's too late to pull out, the world will be watching. Me.” The President walked to his motorcade.

“The last President of America.” the Master said once he was gone. “We have a private plane ready and waiting. We should reach the Valiant within the hour. My darling.”

Lucy left with her security guard. The Master turned and looked in the rough direction of the four. Lilith had the uneasy feeling that he could see through the perception filters. He looked away.

A Police van arrived and the Master ran over to it. Martha’s parents were bundled out. “Ha, ha, ha! Hi, guys!”

“Oh my God,” Martha breathed.

“Don't move!” the Doctor hissed.

“But the—”

“Don't.”

They watched as the two were pushed into a Range Rover Vogue. “I'm going to kill him,” Martha growled.

Lilith cocked her head to the side. “I bet I could take him out from here with my blaster.”

“What say I use this perception filter to walk up behind him and break his neck?” Jack wondered, darkly.

“Now that sounds like Torchwood,” the Doctor said.

“Still a good plan.”

“He's a Time Lord, which makes him my responsibility. I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him.”

“Aircraft carrier Valiant. It's a UNIT ship at 58.2 north, 10.02 east,” Jack informed them.

“How do we get on board?” asked Martha.

Lilith held out her arm. Everyone put a hand on her vortex manipulator and they disappeared in a flash.

* * *

“Oh, that thing is rough,” Martha complained. “I envy you, Lilith.”

“I've has worse nights.” Jack shrugged off the pain. “Welcome to the Valiant.”

Martha looked out a window. “It's dawn? Hold on, I thought this was a ship. Where's the sea?”

“A ship for the twenty first century, protecting the skies of planet Earth,” Jack said. The four of them ran down the halls. The Doctor stopped short. “We've no time for sightseeing, Doc.”

“No, wait. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Can't you hear it?” the Doctor asked.

“Hear what?”

Lilith’s eyes widened. “Oh, Rassilon,” she breathed.

“Doctor, my family's on board—” Martha started off.

The Doctor grinned. “Brilliant. This way!” They ran down a gangway to level 4, and then opened a door at the end of the hall revealing the TARDIS. “Oh, at last!”

“Oh, yes!”

“What's it doing on the Valiant?” Jack wondered.

 

> _I thought all our problems were over. I was wrong._

“Dad…” Lilith said slowly.

The Doctor paid her no mind. He ducked inside the TARDIS.

The entire console room was lit with a red light. The whole console was blocked off. Lilith could hear the Old Girl moaning in her mind. Rage flashed through her. “What the hell's he done?” she demanded.

“Don't touch it,” the Doctor warned them.

“What's he done though?” Martha asked. “Sounds like it's sick.”

“It can't be,” the Doctor murmured. “No, no, no, no, no, no, it can't be.”

“Doctor, what is it?”

He spun around on the spot. “He's cannibalized the TARDIS.”

“Is this what I think it is?” Jack said.

“It’s a paradox machine,” the Doctor growled.

“That’s it!” Lilith shouted. She took her blaster out of its holster and handed it to the Doctor. “Take that.”

“Why?”

“Because if I have it the next time we see the Master, he’ll be dead before you could say _regenerate_ ,” she growled.

The Doctor tucked her blaster into his bigger on the inside pockets. He tapped a gauge on the metal mesh around the console. “As soon as this hits red, it activates. At this speed, it'll trigger at two minutes past eight.”

“First contact is at eight,” Jack said. “Then two minutes later…”

“What's it for? What does a paradox machine do?” Martha asked.

“The more important question is can we stop it?” Lilith mused.

The Doctor shook his head. “Not till I know what it's doing. Touch the wrong bit; blow up the solar system.”

“Then we've got to get to the Master,” Martha decided.

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “How are we going to stop him?”

“Oh, I've got a way. Sorry, didn't I mention it?” The Doctor smiled innocently.

He led them to the flight deck of the Valiant where President Winters was giving a speech. “For as long as man has looked at the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone.”

“This plan, you going to tell us?” Jack whispered.

“If I can get this around the Master's neck, cancel out his perception, they'll see him for real. It's just hard to go unnoticed with everyone on red alert. If they stop me you've got a key,” the Doctor whispered back.

“Yes, sir.”

“I'll get him,” Martha said, lowly.

Lilith looked up at the Doctor. “Last chance. Are we sure we want him alive?”

“And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane.” President Winters announced. Four of the ‘Toclafane’ appeared. “My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and designated representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon.”

“You're not the Master," said one sphere.

“We like the Mister Master.” said another.

“We don't like you,” said a third.

The President hesitated. “I can be master, if you so wish. I will accept mastery over you, if that is God's will.”

“Man is stupid.”

“Master is our friend.”

“Where's my Master, pretty please?”

The Master leapt up. “Oh, all right then. It's me. Ta da! Sorry, sorry, I have this effect. People just get obsessed. Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy.”

“Saxon, what are you talking about?” President Winters demanded.

“I'm taking control, Uncle Sam, starting with you. Kill him.” One of the Toclafane pointed its weapon at the President and blasted him. Panic broke out and The Master laughed and applauded. “Guards.”

“Nobody move! Nobody move!” the guards ordered.

Lilith swore in Gallifreyan.

“Now then, peoples of the Earth,” the Master said, “please attend carefully.”

The Doctor took off his key and tried to run forward. Two men in black grabbed him and dragged him over to the Master. Lilith made to lunge after him, but Martha and Jack caught her arms.

“We meet at last, Doctor. Oh, ho. I love saying that,” the Master laughed.

“Stop it! Stop it now!” the Doctor insisted.

“As if a perception filter's going to work on me,” the Master sneered. “And look, it's the girlie, the weakling, and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which one's which.”

“I’m the Doctor’s daughter. You think I don’t know how to kill a Time Lord, _Koschei_?” Lilith snarled.

The Master glared at her and reached for something in his pocket. Jack ran forward and the Master zapped him with a new kind of screwdriver. “Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!”

Lilith tried to pull away from Martha, but the other woman kept a tight grip on her left arm.

“Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself—”

“Oh, do excuse me. Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute. Let him go.” 

The guards threw the Doctor to the ground. “It's that sound. The sound in your head. What if I could help?”

“Oh, how to shut him up? I know. Memory Lane. Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver? But, ooh, if I only had the Doctor's biological code. Oh, wait a minute, I do.” The Master opened a large metal briefcase. “I've got his hand. And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?”

The Master aimed his screwdriver at the Doctor, who went into rapid convulsions.

“ _Dad_!” Lilith screamed, tearing out of Martha’s grip and rushing to his side. Martha knelt next to Jack as he revived.

The Master stoped zapping the Doctor, who looked at least a hundred years old.

Martha crawled over to where Lilith was clutching the Doctor. “Doctor? I've got you.”

“Ah, she's a would be doctor. But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in all the way from prison.” The Master waved his hand and Martha’s parents and sister were brought in, their wrists fastened together with cable ties.

“Mum,” Martha whimpered.

“The Toclafane,” the Doctor rasped, “what are they? Who are they?”

The Master knelt in front of the Doctor. Lilith snarled at him. “Doctor, if I told you the truth, your hearts would break.”

“Is it time? Is it ready? Is the machine singing?” asked one of the Toclafane.

The evil Time Lord jumped up. “Two minutes past. So, Earthings. Basically, er, end of the world. Here come the drums!”

Lilith could hear the TARDIS scream as the paradox machine activated. A tear appeared in the sky above the Valiant and thousands of spheres poured out of it.

“How many do you think?” the Master asked his wife with a wide, maniacal grin.

“I, I don't know,” she replied quietly.

“Six billion. Down you go, kids!” The spheres flew down to the population centers and opened fire. “Shall we decimate them? That sounds good. A nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population!”

The Doctor whispered to Lilith and relayed to her a telepathic message. She nodded, put Martha’s hand on her vortex manipulator, and stood. “Hey, Koschei!” she shouted. The Master spun around. Lilith swore at him in Gallifreyan and smashed the button. Her and Martha were teleported away.

They landed in a field outside of the city. Martha held Lilith as she cried, and watched London burn.

“We're coming back,” she promised.

And the two of them walked off.


	9. Midnight Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martha and Lilith have a moment to talk during their missions across the world, Martha learns a bit about her future.

“Tell me about the future.”

Lilith opened her eyes. “Martha, I’m not supposed to—”

“Talk about it, I know.” Martha sighed. “But I just need to be reassured, you know? That there _is_ a future, that there’s something beyond all this rubbish. Please.”

Lilith thought about telling her that time is always in flux, that it can be rewritten in the blink on an eye, but instead she said, “A doctor.”

“Sorry?”

“You become a doctor. For a military organization, sure, but you’re still Doctor Jones. At least until you get married, then your name changes.”

Martha shifted to look at Lilith. “Married.”

Lilith nodded. “I can’t tell you his name, but he’s a family friend. You meet through Dad. Mom always said he was the one who was most thrilled to find out you two were together.

“At your wedding, I was the flower girl. I don’t remember much considering I was only three, but I remember that Uncle Mi— ah, your husband demanded that Dad pick up his best man from a parallel universe.

“You two are my sister Darkel’s godparents. He adores her and you spoil her to death. You and he spoil all five of us, really.” Lilith gulped, attempting to hold back tears. Her next sentence came out a bit hoarse. “Your son was two when I left.”

Martha was silent for a few moments. “Do you miss us?”

Lilith smiled and took Martha’s hand. “I don’t have to miss you. You’re right here.”


	10. The Power in Words Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year later, the Master and the Toclafane are rulers of Earth, which is torn apart by a year of hell. The only hope for everyone is Lilith and Martha, the girls who walked the Earth, now legends amongst humanity.

_“We're coming back.” And the two of them walked off._

 

_One year later…_

Lilith could see a man signaling to the rowing boat offshore with an oil lamp. It hit the shore and she and Martha got out and went over to the man.

“What's your name, then?” Martha asked.

“Tom Milligan,” he answered. “No need to ask who you two are. The famous Martha Jones and Lilith Smith. How long since you were last in Britain?”

“Three hundred and sixty five days,” Martha sighed. “It's been a long year.”

“So what's the plan?”

“Professor Docherty. We need to see her,” Lilith said, stiffly. “Can you get us there?”

Tom nodded. “She works in a repair shed, Nuclear Plant Seven. I can get you inside. What's all this for? What's so important about her?”

Martha looked away as the started walking. “Sorry, the more you know, the more you're at risk.”

“There's a lot of people depending on you. You two are a bit of a legend.”

Lilith raised her eyebrows. “Really? What does the legend say?”

“That you sailed the Atlantic, walked across America, that you were the only ones to get out of Japan alive. Smith and Jones, they say, they’re going to save the world. Bit late for that.”

They went up to a flat bed van. “How come you can drive?” Martha wondered. “Don't you get stopped?”

“Medical staff. Used to be in pediatrics back in the old days,” Tom explained. “But that gives me a license to travel so I can help out other the labor camps.”

“Great. We're travelling with a doctor.”

Lilith snorted as they got in the car.

“Story goes that you're the only people on Earth who can kill him,” Tom said, conversationally. “That you, and only you, can kill the Master stone dead.”

The two girls looked out into the night. “Let's just drive.”

Lilith tried to reach out to the Doctor telepathically, but he had put up walls not a month after she teleported away from the Valiant. The emptiness in her head was a reminder of what she was fighting for.

Once the Master was done for, the Doctor would be safe. Earth would be safe. And it was she and Martha’s job to save them.

The car ride ended at a quarry where a giant statue of the Master stood above the rocks. Lilith scowled at it. 

Martha made a face. “All over the Earth, those things. He's even carved himself into Mount Rushmore.”

“Best to keep down,” Tom instructed. “Here we go. The entire south coast of England, converted into shipyards. They bring in slave labor every morning. Break up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal. Building a fleet out of scrap.”

Below them was a fleet of space rockets. “You should see Russia,” Martha said. “That's Shipyard Number One. All the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait, there's a hundred thousand rockets getting ready for war.”

“War? With who?” Tom frowned.

“The rest of the universe. I've been out there, Tom, in space, before all this happened, and there's a thousand different civilisations all around us with no idea of what's happening here. The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all.”

“You've been in space?” he asked.

“Problem with that?” Martha looked at him.

“No. No, just er, wow. Anything else I should know?”

“I’ve seen a black hole up close,” Lilith offered.

“I've met Shakespeare,” Martha added.

Two Toclafane flying out from behind the statue cut off Lilith’s slight amusement. “Identify, little man!” one ordered.

Tome whipped out an ID. “I've got a license. Thomas Milligan, Peripatetic Medical Squad. I'm allowed to travel. I was just checking for—”

“Soon the rockets will fly, and everyone will need medicine,” the Toclafane interrupted. “You'll be so busy.” The two spheres flew off to the shipyard, laughing.

Tom furrowed his eyebrows. “But they didn't see you.”

“How do you think we travelled the world?” Martha and Lilith took out their TARDIS keys. “The Master set up Archangel, that cell network. Fifteen satellites around the planet, but really they’re actually transmitting this low level psychic field,” Lilith explained. “That's how everyone got hypnotized into thinking he was Harold Saxon.”

“Saxon. Feels like years ago.”

“Our the keys are tuned in to the same frequency. Doesn’t make us invisible, just unnoticeable.”

“Well, I can see you,” Tom pointed out.

Martha smiled. “That's because you wanted to.”

“Yeah, I suppose I did.” He smiled back.

“Is there a Mrs. Milligan?” she asked.

“No. No. What about you?”

“No, maybe in the future.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Suddenly, I’m reminded of my parents. Come on, we've got to find this Docherty woman.”

“We'll have to wait until the next work shift,” Tom said as they got in the car. “What time is it now?”

“It's nearly three o'clock.”

When they got to their destination, Tom cut a gap in the shipyard's chain link fence, and they ran to a building where an older woman was thumping a cathode ray tube in frustration. “Professor Docherty?”

“Busy,” the woman said without looking up.

“They, er, they sent word ahead. I'm Tom Milligan. This is Martha Jones and Lilith Smith.”

“They can be royalty for all I care. I'm still busy,” Professor Docherty snapped.

“Televisions don't work anymore,” Martha said.

The woman sighed, frustrated. “Oh God, I miss Countdown. Never been the same since Des took over. Both Deses. What's the plural for Des? Desi? Deseen? But we've been told there's going to be a transmission from the man himself.” A static-ridden black and white image of the Master appeared on the screen. “There!”

“ _My people. Salutations on this, the eve of war. Lovely woman. But I know there's all sorts of whispers down there. Stories of children, walking the Earth, giving you hope. But I ask you, how much hope has this man got?_ ” He motioned to the Doctor in a wheelchair. “ _Say hello, Gandalf. Except he's not that old, but he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted little apes. But what if it showed? What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate? All nine hundred years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?_ ”

The Master retuned his screwdriver and zapped the Doctor again.

“ _Older and older and older. Down you go, Doctor. Down, down, down the years_.”

Lilith growled at the screen. Finally the convulsions ended, and the Doctor is no longer sitting in the wheelchair. “ _Doctor._ ”

A tiny creature with big eyes peers out from the otherwise empty clothes.

The Master smirked at the camera. “Received and understood, girls?” The broadcast ended. 

I'm sorry,” Tom whispered.

Martha took Lilith hand to calm her down. “The Doctor's still alive.”

Lilith sighed. “It’s times like these that I wish Dad would’ve let me shoot that bastard in the face.”

 

“Obviously the Archangel Network would seem to be the Master's greatest weakness,” Professor Docherty said. “Fifteen satellites all around the Earth, still transmitting. That's why there's so little resistance. It's broadcasting a telepathic signal that keeps people scared.”

“We could just take them out,” Tom suggested.

“We could. Fifteen ground to air missiles. You got any on you?” Professor Docherty asked, sarcastically. “Besides, any military action, the Toclafane descend.”

“They're not called Toclafane,” Lilith said. “The Toclafane don’t exist. That's a name the Master made up.”

“Then what are they, then?”

“That's why we came to find you. Know your enemy. I've got this.” Martha held up a computer disc. “No one's been able to look at a sphere close up. They can't even be damaged, except once. The lightning strike in South Africa brought one of them down, just by chance. I've got the readings on this.”

Docherty put the disc into her computer and thumped it as it struggled to read the data. “Oh, whoever thought we'd miss Bill Gates.”

“So is that why you travelled the world?” Tom questioned. “To find a disc?”

“No. Just got lucky.”

“I heard stories that you walked the Earth to find a way to build a weapon,” Professor Docherty said. “There! A current of 58.5 kiloamperes transferred charge of five hundred and ten megajoules precisely.”

“Can you replicate that?” Lilith asked.

“I think so. Easily. Yes.”

Martha grinned. “Right then, Doctor Milligan, we're going to get us a sphere.”

Outside, Martha, the professor, and Lilith set up an electrical field. Tom fired a gun three times. A sphere chased him down as he ran.

“He's coming,” Martha told the other two. “You ready?”

“You do your job, I'll do mine!” Professor Docherty shouted.

Tom ran in. “Now!”

The sphere got caught in the electrical field they had set up across a narrow passageway. After a few moments, it dropped to the ground.

Lilith picked up the sphere. “That's only half the job. Let's find out what's inside.” They headed back inside.

Docherty is tried to open the sphere with what looked like an exacto-knife. “There's some sort of magnetic clamp. Hold on, I'll just trip the—” The sphere opened the four quarters of the top. “Oh my God!”

It contained a tiny, wizened head. It opened its eyes and made them all jump back. “It's alive!” Professor Docherty breathed.

“Martha. Martha Jones,” it said.

“It knows you!” gasped Tom.

“Sweet, kind Martha Jones. You helped us to fly.”

“What do you mean?” Martha asked.

“You led us to salvation.”

“Who are you?”

It’s milky blue eyes looked at Martha. “The skies are made of diamonds.”

Martha’s own eyes widened. “No. You can't be him.”

“We share each other's memories. You sent him to Utopia.”

“What's it talking about? What's it mean?” Tom asked. “Martha. Martha, tell us. What are they?”

Martha looked at Docherty and Tom. “They're us. They're humans. The human race from the future.”

Lilith nodded. “I sort of worked it out with the paradox machine. Dad said that when the Master was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing he could do was lock the coordinates. The Master was only able to use the TARDIS, a time machine, to go to the year one hundred trillion and back.”

“So he found Utopia,” Martha guessed.

“The Utopia Project was the last hope,” Lilith explained. “Trying to find a way to escape the end of everything.”

“There was no solution, no diamonds. Just the dark and the cold,” the head said. “But then the Master came with his wonderful time machine to bring us back home." 

Docherty frowned. “But that's a paradox. If you're the future of the human race, and you've come back to murder your ancestors, you should cancel yourselves out. You shouldn't exist.”

“Hence the paradox machine.” Lilith made a disgusted face. “A living TARDIS, strong enough to hold the paradox in place would allow the past and the future to collide. The Master is changing history. Not just Earth’s, the entire universe’s.”

“But what about us?” Tom asked. “We're the same species. Why do you kill so many of us?”

“Because it's fun!” the sphere laughed.

Lilith snarled, grabbed Tom’s gun and shot the future human. She handed the weapon back and sank onto a chair. “Fun,” she spat. “Those things are foul, wrong, _repugnante_.”

“I think it's time we had the truth, Miss Smith,” Docherty said. “The legend says you two have travelled the world to find a way of killing the Master. Tell us, is it true?”

Lilith sighed. “The Doctor and the Master, they've been coming to Earth for years. And they've been watched. There's UNIT and Torchwood, all studying Time Lords in secret. And they made this, the ultimate defense.”

Martha opened a case to reveal a gun-like device, with a squeeze trigger and four small cylinders along the top. It also held three vials of colored liquid.

“All you need to do is get close,” Tom argued. “I shoot the Master dead with this.” He held up his gun.

Docherty glared at him. “Actually, you can put that down now, thank you very much.”

Lilith shook her head. “It's not that easy to kill a Time Lord. We can do this thing called regeneration. It’s like bringing ourselves back to life.”

“Ah, the Master's immortal. Wonderful,” Docherty muttered.

“Except for this.” Lilith tapped the vials. “Four chemicals, slotted into the gun. Shoot him with this and it’ll kill one of us permanently.”

“Four chemicals? You've only got three,” Tom said.

“Still need the last one, because the components of this gun were kept safe, scattered across the world, and we found them,” Martha explained. “San Diego, Beijing, Budapest and London.”

“Hold on a moment,” Docherty interrupted. “You said 'one of  _us_.' Are you like him?”

“I'm like the Doctor,” Lilith snapped, angrily.

Probably sensing that it wasn't a good topic, Tom brought the conversation back to the gun. “Where is the fourth chemical?” he asked.

“There's an old UNIT base, north London,” Martha answered. “We've found the access codes. Tom, you've got to get us there.”

“We can't get across London in the dark. It's full of wild dogs. We'll get eaten alive. We can wait till the morning, then go with the medical convoy.”

You can spend the night here, if you like,” Docherty offered.

Tom shook his head. “No, we can get halfway, stay at the slave quarters in Bexley. Professor, thank you.”

“And you. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

“Martha, could you do it?” the woman asked. “Could you actually kill him?”

Martha hesitated. “I've got no choice.”

“You might be many things, but you don't look like a killer to me.”

“Do I?” Lilith asked, voice as cold and hard as steel. “I _will_ do whatever it takes to stop the Master. I’ve killed to protect the Doctor before, I am _not_ afraid to do it again.”


	11. The Power in Words Part 2

Tom, Lilith, and Martha dodged a patrol, and knocked on the door. “Let me in. It's Milligan.”

The place was filled to the brim with people. “Did you bring food?”

Tom shook his head. “Couldn't get any, and I'm starving.”

“All we've got is water.”

Martha and Lilith looked around at the excess of people smashed into one place. “Oh, Rassilon,” Lilith breathed.

“It's cheaper than building barracks,” Tom said. “Pack them in, a hundred in each house, ferry them off to the shipyards every morning.”

“Are you Lilith Smith and Martha Jones?” a teenage boy asked.

“Yeah, that's us,” Martha said.

“Can you do it? Can you kill him? They said you can kill the Master, can you? Tell us you can do it. Please, tell us you can do it.”

Everyone started talking at once.

“Come on; just leave them alone. They're exhausted,” Tom told them.

“No, it's all right. They want us to talk, and we will.” Lilith looked at Martha who nodded.

Martha told the people all about her travels with the Doctor and Lilith told them about hers. “We’ve travelled across the world, from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe.” Martha spoke to the group. “And everywhere we went, we saw people just like you, living as slaves. But if Martha Jones and Lilith Smith became a legend, then that's wrong, because our names aren’t important. There's someone else. The man who sent us out there. The man who told us to walk the Earth. And his name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But we've seen him. We know him. We love him. And we know what he can do.”

A woman came pushing through the crowd. “It's him! It's him!” she cried. “Oh my God, it's him! It's the Master. He's here.”

“But he never comes to Earth. He never walks upon the ground!” the boy from earlier panicked.

“Hide them!”

“Use this.” They covered Lilith and Martha with an old sack. Tom readies his gun by the mail slot.

“He walks among us, our lord and master.”

“Martha Jones! Lilith Smith! I can see you! Out you come, little girls. Come and meet your master!” the Master shouted from outside. “Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing? Positions. I'll give the order unless you surrender. Ask yourself. What would the Doctor do?”

Martha and Lilith looked at each other. They took off their TARDIS keys and went outside.

“Oh, yes. Oh, very well done. Good girls. He trained you well. Bag. Give me the bag,” the Master ordered. Martha took a step forward. “No, stay there. Just throw it.”

She threw her backpack towards the Master, who fired his laser screwdriver at it and it burst into flame.

“And now, good companion, your work is done." The Master pointed his laser at Martha.

“Don’t you dare!” Lilith hissed.

Tom ran out of the house. “No!”

The Master killed Tom, and laughed. Then he looked at Lilith. “And what about you, Miss Smith? Tell me, have you looked into the Schism? If I kill you, will you regenerate?"

“You’re a dead man, Koschei!” Lilith snarled.

“Don’t call me that!” the Master growled. “No matter, the Council gave me a new set of regenerations. You’d be dead before you could kill me enough times.”

“There’s more than one way to kill a Time Lord,” she hissed.

“But you, when you die, the Doctor should be witness, hmm? Almost dawn, girls, and planet Earth marches to war.”

* * *

“Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe!” the Master announced.

Guards pushed Martha and Lilith in. Martha’s family was already there on one side, and Jack on the other. The Doctor, the tiny creature that we was, stood in a bird cage.

“Your teleport device,” the Master demanded. “In case you thought I'd forgotten.” Martha threw Jack’s vortex manipulator to the Master. Lilith tugged on her sleeve to make sure hers was properly hidden. “And now, kneel.” They knelt. “Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?”

“ _The fleet awaits your signal. Rejoice!_ ” someone said over a communicator.

“Three minutes to align the black hole converters. Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock. My children, are you ready?”

“We will fly and blaze and slice. We will fly and blaze and slice,” the spheres chorused.

The Master checked his watch. “At zero, to mark this day, the children Lilith Smith and Martha Jones, will die. My first blood. Any last words?”

The girls stayed silent.

“No? Such a disappointment, these two. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the time vortex,” the Master sneered. Lilith flinched. “Ah, that got a reaction, didn’t it? Bow your head. And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward—”

Lilith started to snicker.

“What? What's so funny?” the Master asked, irritated.

Martha joined her, laughing quietly. “A gun.”

“What about it?”

“A gun in four parts?”

“Yes, and I destroyed it.”

“A gun in four parts scattered across the world?” Lilith snorted. “I mean, honestly, did you really believe that?”

“What do you mean?” the Master demanded.

The Doctor spoke in his raspy voice. “As if I would ask them to kill.”

“I’d do it anyway.” Lilith shrugged nonchalantly. “But he’d never ask me to.”

“Oh well, it doesn't matter. I've got them exactly where I want them.”

“But we knew what Professor Docherty would do,” Martha said. “The Resistance knew about her son. We told her about the gun, so she'd get us here at the right time.”

“Oh, but you're still going to die,” the Master sneered.

“Don't you want to know what we was doing, travelling the world?”

The Master rolled his eyes. “Tell me.”

“We told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. We did just what the Doctor said. We went across the continents together. And everywhere we went, we found the people, and told them our story.”

“We told them about the Doctor,” Lilith said. “And we told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor.”

The Master scoffed. “Faith and hope? Is that all?”

“No, because we gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said.” They stood up. "We told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time—”

“Nothing will happen!” the Master snapped. “Is that your weapon? Prayer?”

“—right across the world, in word, just one thought at one moment but with fifteen satellites.”

“What?”

“The Archangel Network,” Jack said.

“A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word,” Lilith smirked, “is _Doctor_.”

The countdown hit zero. The Doctor in his cage started to glow.

“Stop it!” the Master demanded. “No, no, no, no, you don't.”

“Doctor.”

“Doctor.”

“Doctor.”

“Stop this right now. Stop it!”

“Doctor.”

“Doctor.”

“Doctor.”

The Doctor was back in his previous centenarian form. “I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices.”

“I order you to stop!” the Master shouted.

“The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking.” The Doctor was back to his normal appearance, in all his pinstriped glory. “Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this.”

Martha ran to Francine and Tish for a group hug.

“No!” The Master fired his laser screwdriver at the Doctor.

The energy field surrounding him stopped the beam and it didn't get through. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.”

“Then I'll kill her!” The Master pointed the screwdriver at Lilith. The Doctor stretched out his hand and the screwdriver flew out of the Master's grip. “You can't do this. You can't do it. It's not fair!”

“And you know what happens now.”

“No! No! No! No!”

The Doctor floated towards the Master. “You wouldn't listen."

“No!”

“Because you know what I'm going to say.”

“No.”

The Master curled into a ball in the corner. The Doctor puts his arms around him. “I forgive you.”

The Master pulled out the vortex manipulator and set coordinates. The Doctor noticed and grabbed it. “No!” They both disappeared.

Lilith sprinted over to Jack, who swept her up in a spinning hug. “Worried about me?” she asked, cheekily.

“Maybe a little.”

Something dawned on her. “Uncle Jack, we’ve got to stop the paradox machine.”

“Right. You men, with me!” Jack shouted at some guards. “You stay here,” he said to Lilith.

She nodded, went over to Martha, and hugged her tightly.

“We did it,” Martha breathed.

Lilith smiled. “Martha Jones, the girl who walked the Earth.”

Martha smiled back. “You were there too.”

“Yeah, I am pretty cool.”

“Look!”

They all rushed over to the window where they could see thousands of spheres flying towards the Valiant. Lilith swore in Gallifreyan. “The Master must’ve summoned them to protect the paradox machine!”

And then, the world started to shake.

The spheres disappeared and the ship shook harder than the TARDIS landing in a parallel world. Martha got thrown to the floor, but Lilith caught her.

“Everyone get down! Time is reversing!” the Doctor shouted. He crawled over to Lilith and Martha and took both of their hands. They all beamed at each other.

Finally, everything stopped.

“Jack did it,” Lilith breathed. “The paradox is broken.”

“We've reverted back, one year and one day,” the Doctor confirmed. “Two minutes past eight in the morning. Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror. It never was.”

“What about the spheres?” Martha asked.

“Trapped at the end of the universe,” the Doctor assured her.

“But I can remember it,” Martha’s mother protested.

Lilith was the one to explain. “We're at the eye of the storm. The only ones who'll ever know.”

The Master ran for the door just as Jack came in. “Whoa, big fella! You don't want to miss the party. Cuffs.” He locked the Master’s hands in handcuffs. “So, what do we do with this one?”

“We kill him,” Martha’s dad said.

“We execute him,” her sister said.

“You give me my blaster and I shoot him in the face,” Lilith suggested.

The Doctor glared at her, but gave her the blaster back anyway. “No, that's not the solution.”

Martha’s mom grabbed a pistol and aimed at the Master. “Oh, I think so. Because all those things, they still happened because of him. I saw them.”

“Go on. Do it,” the Master goaded.

“Francine, you're better than him.” The Doctor got Francine to lower the gun and gently pushed her to Martha.

“You still haven't answered the question,” the Master said. “What happens to me?”

“You're my responsibility from now on. The only Time Lord left in existence.”

“Yeah, but you can't trust him!” Jack protested.

“No. The only safe place for him is the TARDIS.”

Lilith gaped at her father. “What are we going to do, shove him in a cage a feed him three times a day? We can’t just keep him!”

“If that's what I have to do,” the Doctor said, firmly. “It's time to change. Maybe we've been wandering for too long. Now we've got someone to care for.”

There was a bang as Lucy shot the Master. The Doctor caught him as he staggered back. “There you go. I've got you. I've got you.”

The Master gave him a pain twisted smile. “Always the women.”

“I didn't see her.”

“Dying in your arms. Happy now?”

“You're not dying. Don't be stupid,” the Doctor said. “It's only a bullet. Just regenerate.”

“No.”

“One little bullet. Come on.”

“I guess you don't know me so well. I refuse.”

“Regenerate. Just regenerate. Please. Please!” the Doctor begged. “Just regenerate. Come on.”

The Master shook his head. “And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?”

“You've got to. Come on. It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons. Remember the Axons? And the Daleks. Come on, there's no one else. Regenerate!”

“How about that. I win.” The Master smirked, then his face turned serious. “Will it stop, Doctor? The drumming. Will it stop?”

Lilith knelt next to the Doctor. “They’ll stop, Koschei. They’ll stop.”

The Master closed his eyes.

“No!” the Doctor cried. “No.” Lilith held her father as he sobbed.

Back on the ground, she helped the Doctor set up a funeral pyre. When the sun was down, he lit it. Watching the flames, he pulled Lilith into a tight hug.

‘ _I’m so sorry._ ’

‘ _We’re alone, Lilith. There’s no one else now._ ’

‘ _We have each other. And I’ll stay with you for as long as I can. I promise, Dad._ ’

* * *

The Doctor, Lilith, Jack, and Martha leaned against a railing at Roald Dahl Pass. “Time was, every single one of these people knew your name,” Martha said. “Now they've all forgotten you.”

“Good.”

Jack knocked on the railing. “Back to work.”

“I really don't mind, though,” the Doctor told him. “Come with us.”

“I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was, and I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility.”

Lilith smirked, but kept her thoughts to herself. 

“Defending the Earth. Can’t argue with that,” said the Doctor.

“And what about me? Can you fix that, Doctor? Will I ever be able to die?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Nothing I can do. You're an impossible thing, Jack.”

“Been called that before.” Jack saluted. “Sir. Ma'am. Sweetheart.” He winked at Lilith, who rolled her eyes. “But I keep wondering. What about aging? Because I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?”

“I really don't know,” the Doctor chuckled.

Lilith giggled. “You’re so vain, Uncle Jack.”

“Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me. I'll see you.” He walked away.

The Doctor and Martha looked at each other.

“No.”

“It can't be.”

“No. Definitely not. No. No.”

Lilith started cracking up. The Doctor stared at her. “You knew?”

“I’ve always known!” she laughed before chasing after Jack. “Jack, hold up!"

“Coming back with me after all, Lilith?” he teased. Lilith tensed and he put his hand on her shoulder. “Only joking. I always knew you'd have to head back to the Doctor eventually.”

“You're not the only one I'm worried about,” she admitted. 

“You know our team. They can handle themselves.”

“Yeah, _that team of yours_ , that you're going back for,” Lilith snorted. “Responsibility to _the whole team_.”

Jack nodded. “Exactly.”

“Not one team member in particular?” She looked at him pointedly. 

“A specific member might have factored into the decision more than others,” he allowed. “I assume there's a reason you're pointing it out?”

Lilith shifted uncomfortably. “Listen, I'm not exactly positive when I'll see you next so I feel like this is advice I need to give now. Don't take him for granted.”

Jack frowned. “Lilith—” 

“No, just let me finish. The crap you pulled back in 1941, the time with Tosh, you can't do that anymore. I get that you're not exactly wired for conventional— or as conventional as Torchwood can get— 21st century relationships, but you've got to try this time. He's worth it.”

“I know.”

“Good,” she said, then pulled him into a hug. “And punch Owen in the nose for me, would you?”

Jack laughed and bid her goodbye. Lilith sprinted back to the TARDIS just in time for them to dematerialize and park the TARDIS outside of Francine’s house. The two Gallifreyans watched the family inside the house from across the street. Lilith went back inside the ship and the Doctor followed. They flopped onto the jump seat, Lilith leaning her head on the Doctor’s shoulder.

Martha came in and the Doctor jumped up. “Right then, off we go! The open road. There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or back in time. We could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eighth. I know. What about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie. I bet she's brilliant!”

Martha looked at him, somberly.

“Okay,” he sighed.

“I just can't,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them.”

“Of course not.” The Doctor hugged her. “Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world.”

“Yes, I did,” Martha said with a smile. “I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am _good_. You going to be all right?”

“Always.” The Doctor nodded. “Yeah.”

“Right then.” She tossed her cell phone to him. “Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you'd better come running. Got it?”

“Got it.”

She turned to Lilith. “And you better make sure he picks up.”

“Will do.” Lilith nodded.

Martha turned to go, but stopped at the door. “I'll see you again, you two,” Martha promised.

Lilith saluted. “ _Hasta luego,_ Aunt Martha.” Martha laughed and shook her head before leaving.

“What was that for?” the Doctor asked.

“Spoilers, my dear father.” Lilith grinned.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and pulled a lever on the console. Alarms started to blare and the TARDIS spun and shook, and the two travelers were thrown onto the jump seat.

Lilith swore loudly in Gallifreyan.


	12. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

So, we're gonna have to go back to my sporadic posting. I have to apologize to everyone (especially K, who was very excited about the daily posting). Luckily it's Donna who's up next, after Time Crash, so maybe that will ease the pain of my suckiness.

Thanks for reading! I hope you've enjoyed it.

-Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler


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